South African President Jacob Zuma reportedly got into a verbal confrontation with Robert Mugabe, after the ZANU PF leader challenged him over the ‘inaccuracy’ of the Livingstone Troika resolutions. The Johannesburg Summit went on and ‘noted’ the decision of the Organ Troika in Livingstone, dealing a major blow to ZANU PF who had wanted the resolutions thrown out altogether. But the regional leaders also appeared to soften their language towards Mugabe.

Discriminatory laws and a largely homophobic society mean that men who have sex with men (MSM) in Kenya generally find it difficult to access HIV-related information and health services, but rural MSM have an especially hard time. When Kibet Kipsowen*, 30, a cattle keeper in Kenya’s Rift Valley Province, and his partner have sex, they use the oil-based jelly he applies when milking his cows; he’s never heard of a water-based lubricant, let alone used one. Health practitioners discourage the use of oil-based lubricants for anal sex, as the oil degrades condoms, increasing the likelihood that they will break. Studies have found that most African MSM use oil-based lubricants, heightening their risk of contracting HIV.

Ibrahim Foday, a reporter of The Exclusive, a Freetown-based independent newspaper, was on 12 June 2011, stabbed to death by unknown assailants in Grafton, a town in the outskirts of Freetown, where Foday lives. The Sierra Leonean authorities have not identified any suspects or disclosed possible motives for the murder, according to a release by the Sierra Leone Association of Journalist (SLAJ), on 13 June 2011. The SLAJ statement linked Foday’s death to an ongoing land dispute between Grafton and another town, Kossoh. Prior to his death the reporter had published a series of articles, on the dispute that the Kossoh people were not pleased with.

The roll-out of a revolutionary meningitis vaccination in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger has dramatically cut transmission rates, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), and if each country can find sufficient funds to co-finance the campaign, it will be extended to all 25 countries in the Africa meningitis belt by 2016, says the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI). In the 2010-2011 meningitis season, Burkina Faso has confirmed just four cases of meningitis A; Niger has reported four cases; and Mali none, according to WHO.

The Sierra Leone Network on the Right to Food (SiLNoRF) has published a report on the sugarcane-to-ethanol project of the Geneva based firm Addax Bioenergy. The researchers found that 'many farmers in project affected communities have already lost their access to fertile lands, though Addax has provided community members with alternative farm lands and confined them to smaller lands, promises by Addax to plough and harrow the lands materialized too late in 2010.' Furthermore, the researchers observed that 'water has become an ever increasing problem for the communities as lands leased by Addax are currently being prepared and even at this initial stage some water bodies such as the "Kirbent" and "Domkoni" streams near the Maronko village in the Makari Gbanti Chiefdom have ceased to exist.'

In this week's edition of the Emerging Powers News Round-Up, read a comprehensive list of news stories and opinion pieces related to China, India and other emerging powers...

The following can be found in the new issue:
- An in-depth look at the food price volatility and food markets
- The launch of the People’s Food Policy in Canada
- Voices and testimonies from Brazil and Mozambique
- An update from the International Seeds meeting in Bali.
Visit the website for more information.

This conference aims at promoting scientific exchanges involving researchers and stakeholders dealing
with land issues. Participants will be invited to share their work and experiences in order to assess land
strategies and policies within a comparative framework. This conference was initiated by Ugandan and
French researchers from the Institute of Research for Development (IRD, France) and the University of
Makerere (Kampala, Uganda). Many local and international researchers in East Africa have documented
land-related issues and wider scientific exchanges are expected to stem from this meeting.

The aim of Meet You At The Crossroads is to circulate, document, provoke, inspire and support. It is a library of public images of resistance, rebellion, revolt and rebuilding occurring in cities right across the globe, often on the streets; in the public realm.

As donors gathered for a major meeting on funding vaccines for the developing world, campaigners called for vaccine production to be transferred to Africa to save money and contribute to the continent's broader economic development. The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), a public-private initiative, is asking for US$3.7 billion in funding over the next four years to immunise 243 million children against a variety of diseases. But vaccines supported by GAVI are produced almost entirely in Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia, said the Council on Health Research for Development (COHRED), based in Switzerland.

The Ivoirian government has extended a special period of free health care to help a population reeling from months of turmoil. But in a country where cost recovery for health services has long been the policy, an abrupt change to free care is posing challenges. Shortly after Alassane Ouattara took power in April 2011, he announced that public health services would be free until the end of May as a way to help people in the aftermath of widespread unrest and economic stagnation. Doctors reported 20-30 times the number of patients after free care was announced. Advocates of free care say the explosion of patients indicates that cost is one of the biggest barriers to access.

Following the so called 'Arab spring', and in the midst of the ‘acampadas’, organised mass mobilisations through social networks in many Spanish cities, the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) in collaboration with IPS Inter Press Service News Agency launched the book 'Politics, Networks and Technologies in Communications for Development', a tour through the different visions of new technologies and their contribution to information in general and more concretely, to communication for development. The book has contributions from experts who analyse challenges faced by journalism and communication for development, in front of the revolution of new technologies.

Rebels and forces of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi have fought over Zawiyah, a major oil port just 50km west of Tripoli, and in locations across the North African country. Libya's government said it has stopped opposition fighters from entering Zawiyah but rebels said they were continuing to fight for the town on Sunday, after hours of battles. Mussa Ibrahim, the government spokesman, said that Gaddafi's forces had 'total control' of the area from Ajdabiya in the east to the Tunisian border in the west.

According to Eco-Watch Africa, sexual harassment and violence against women and girls in the aftermath of natural disasters, like recent floods in Mozambique, is an enormous challenge. This means women will suffer both the effects of natural disasters and also the gender-based violence common in refugee camps or post-disaster situations. Yet despite women being the most vulnerable, they are grossly underrepresented in debates, discussions and other decision-making structures around issues of climate change.

COSATU general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi warns in a report prepared for the federation's central committee meeting this month that South Africa could become a 'banana republic', and threatens to repudiate President Jacob Zuma's leadership. Cosatu's central committee meeting is a mid-term review since the federation's last congress in 2009. In its analysis, the report compares the ANC's attitude towards the federation to the bad treatment it received during the era of former president Thabo Mbeki. The report confirms that Cosatu believes the ANC Youth League is on a campaign to remove Mantashe and Zuma.

President of the Swaziland National Union of Students, Maxwell Dlamini, has been detained, tortured, and forced by Swaziland’s regime to sign a confession that says he was in possession of explosives during the April 12 Swazi Uprising - a movement inspired by similar uprisings in North Africa and The Middle East. The Free Maxwell Dlamini Campaign, together with the people and organisations that support the campaign - are demanding that Maxwell Dlamini, and his fellow accused Musa Ngubeni, is released unconditionally and that any and all wrongdoings committed by Swaziland’s police forces and security forces towards Maxwell Dlamini and other members of Swaziland’s democratic movement are investigated, and that any perpetrators are brought before a court of law.

In his inaugural speech on 21 May, Côte d'Ivoire President Alassane Outtara called for Ivorians to come together and unite. The text and tone of his speech was conciliatory, observers agreed, and earlier in May he called for the International Criminal Court to investigate human rights abuses on all sides, including those by his own troops. But if his words are to have credibility, observers also agree, his administration must take effective action to halt ethnically-based reprisals that are ongoing, reports the latest edition of the AfricaFocus Bulletin, which contains a summary article and excerpts from the latest Human Rights Watch report, published on 3 June.

For the first time, the role of the internet on the right to freedom of opinion and expression is being reported at the 17th session of the UN Human Rights Council. This signals a clear recognition that the increasing prevalence of the internet in all aspect of our lives is becoming impossible to ignore, and that it is becoming pivotal in the realisation of our fundamental rights and freedoms. At the same session, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women is also presenting her report on violence against women, its causes and consequences. The synchronicity of both reports, especially given the fact that human rights are universal, interdependent and indivisible, calls for a close reading to identify the points of connection that can be built in the effort to recognise, analyse and address violations that affect the recognition, protection and fulfilment of women's human rights.

The International Freedom of Exchange has announced that they are joining forces with other organisations to launch the first ever International Day to End Impunity on 23 November, the anniversary of the single deadliest attack on journalists in recent history: the 2009 Maguindanao massacre in the Philippines. On the heels of this announcement the members learned that Pakistani journalist Saleem Shahzad had been found murdered in Islamabad, most likely for his reporting on ties between Al Qaeda and Pakistan's navy.

Few cases of sexual assault against journalists have ever been documented, a product of powerful cultural and professional stigmas. But now dozens of journalists are coming forward to say they have been sexually abused in the course of their work. The Committee to Protect Journalists has interviewed more than four dozen journalists who have undergone varying degrees of sexual violence - from rape by multiple attackers to aggressive groping - either in retaliation for their work or during the course of their reporting. They include 27 local journalists, from top editors to beat reporters, working in regions from the Middle East to South Asia, Africa to the Americas.