TWAS Fellowships: 2011 Call for Applications
Postgraduate, postdoctoral, visiting scholar and advanced research fellowships available to scientists from developing countries

TWAS, the academy of sciences for the developing world, is now accepting applications for its postgraduate, postdoctoral, visiting scholars and advanced research fellowship programmes.
The fellowships are offered to scientists from developing countries and are tenable at centres of excellence in various countries in the South, including Brazil, China, India, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan and Thailand.

Eligible fields include: agricultural and biological sciences, medical and health sciences, chemistry, engineering, astronomy, space and earth sciences, mathematics and physics.

Please see > Programmes > Exchange > Fellowships (http://twas.ictp.it/prog/exchange/fells/fells-overview) for the latest information regarding all these programmes, including eligibility criteria, deadlines, etc, and to download the application forms and guidelines.

Women scientists are especially encouraged to apply.

Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi has called on President Jacob Zuma to take 'stern action' against national police chief Bheki Cele and Public Works Minister Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde over the controversial R500 million lease for new SAPS headquarters. Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s report described as unlawful actions by both departments in procuring the Sanlam Middestad building in Pretoria.

The Brenthurst Foundation is inviting applications from young graduates for the newly established Machel Mandela Internship Programme, named in honour of former South African President Nelson Mandela and his wife Graca Machel. The Machel Mandela Internship programme aims to be the most prestigious of its kind in Africa. It will help sharpen the Brenthurst Foundation’s focus on Africa’s burgeoning youth population and help nurture Africa’s future leaders.

Gender inequality remains a major barrier to human development. The 2010 Human Development Report introduced the Gender Inequality Index to meet the challenge of measuring the disadvantages faced by women around the world. The Gender Inequality Index is a composite measure reflecting inequality in achievements between women and men in three dimensions: health, empowerment and the labour market. Visit the web site for a comprehensive break down of the results.

'We call upon the nuclear industry, and the South African government, to take this disaster seriously, and abandon all nuclear plans for our country,' says Earthlife Africa Cape Town in response to the impact of the Japanese earthquake on that country's nuclear power stations. 'Given that proposed sites are all along the coast, we believe that this gamble is unacceptable. Not only are sustainable and safe alternatives cheaper than nuclear power, but they are also better solutions to the creation of decent work and energy security, as well as the best solutions to limit climate change.'

Libyan armed forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi have cleared 'armed gangs' from the oil-rich town of Brega in the east, an army source told state television on Sunday. 'Brega has been cleansed of armed gangs,' the military source was quoted as saying. The report could not immediately be verified. State television has in the past issued false reports claiming territory. But the claim comes amid a string of setbacks for the rebels who have lost several cities in the east to pro-Gaddafi forces. Brega's fall into the hands of Gaddafi loyalists would deal a further blow to the opposition's morale and momentum.

Despite regional initiatives that even include the eventual possibility of a 'Cape-to-Cairo' free trade area, protectionist impulses have caused non-tariff barriers to spring up across Southern Africa. Zambian trade consultant John Kasanga cites countless examples of non-tariff barriers across the region: 'Zambia protects its sugar industry from cheaper imports from Zimbabwe by demanding that all imported sugar be fortified with vitamin A. Zimbabwe, in turn, has blocked Zambian strawberries by stipulating that any shipment of this fragile fresh produce must be at least a massive one ton.'

No newspapers were distributed on Friday in Côte d’Ivoire, where the protracted political impasse is creating an extremely grave if not impossible situation for journalists and news media. As the country seems to head steadily towards civil war, with casualties every day, journalists are being exposed to threats, arrests and reprisals, and often have to risk lives to report in some neighbourhoods, says RSF.

The US government approved $40-billion in worldwide private arms sales in 2009, including more than $7-billion to Mideast and North African nations that are struggling with political upheaval, according to newly released government figures. From 2008 to 2009, the US authorised increasing sales of military shipments to the now-toppled Egyptian government of Hosni Mubarak and the embattled kingdom of Bahrain.

Google is recording record growth in sub-Saharan Africa, benefiting from 50 per cent annual growth in search requests coming from the region. At a conference in Senegal hosted by the search engine giant, Business Development Associate Ayite Gaba also revealed that four out of every 10 Google search requests come from a mobile phone.

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...

Documents seized from State Security offices in Alexandria and Cairo prove it - Egyptians have been spied on and tortured by our own government for decades. We need a massive public outcry now to press the military urgently to abolish the SS and instruct the public prosecutor to try those suspected of crimes.

The spectre of 'bantu education' has risen to haunt the University of Cape Town (UCT) again.
Controversy is erupting as UCT's administration moves in on the university's renowned Centre for African Studies (CAS). What these moves should be called is itself contested - the 'closure' of CAS, as some outraged students and staff see it; its 'disestablishment' and 'merging', as the administration prefers.

Life expectancy is just 33.5 years for Zimbabwean women – the lowest in the world; at least 18 per cent of the population lives with HIV and AIDS and of the 1,6-million Zimbabweans with HIV, 55 per cent are women. This is according to activist group Sokwanele, although no source was provided with the information.

An attempt to organise a mass protest against the government in Angola’s capital Luanda may have fallen flat, but there is no doubt that a fuse has been lit among people who for so many years have not dared to challenge authority. In the days leading up to the protest, the planned action was the main topic of conversation across all tiers of society, from the top floors of skyscraper office blocks to the mud-level slums on the peripheries of the cities.

'It is true that the immediate trigger for Arab uprisings is failed internal governance, but sub-Saharan African regimes have also been spared the extra layer of Middle Eastern geopolitical complications which so discredited Arab regimes widely seen as repressive yet impotent,' argues this article in assessing the extent to which popular protests in North Africa will spread to the rest of Africa. 'More crucially, sub-Saharan states are more ethnically pluralist, lacking in the linguistic and relative ethnic homogeneity that have underpegged mass mobilisation of popular Arab action.'

More than 1,000 illegal immigrants escaping political turmoil in north Africa arrived on the southern Italian island Lampedusa in the Mediterraneanrecently. So far, none of the illegal immigrants were believed to have left from Libya, but Italian officials fear an exodus from its former colony if the situation worsens. The new arrivals on Lampedusa come on top of a previous wave of refugees who flooded the island five days ago, when around 350 migrants from Tunisia arrived by boat overnight.

Niger's presidential run-off election was free and fair and the two candidates should respect its verdict, regional observers said on Sunday. Nigeriens voted on Saturday, a year after soldiers ousted ex-president Mamadou Tandja for outstaying his term in office in the uranium-producing state. Provisional results from the poll, which pits opposition leader Mahamadou Issoufou against a Tandja party ally Seyni Oumarou, are due on Monday.

Professor Anyang Nyong'o might have guessed that a trip to the United States for treatment for prostate cancer would provoke a furore: he is the Minister for Medical Services. Health activists are outraged that high-profile politicians are able to access world class facilities, whilst ordinary Kenyans can only dream of accessing such health care. 'We are glad that the minister is back and is exuding good health. But what choices does the ordinary Kenyan have at accessing quality treatment?' asks Nairobi resident, Milka Ondiek.

The presence of Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels has led to deteriorating security conditions for aid workers and civilians in the northern Democratic Republic of Congo’s two Uelé districts, where 31 attacks took place in January alone – as many as in the last three months of 2010. On 6 March, six World Food Programme (WFP) trucks were ambushed by a group of 30 men a few kilometers south of Banda, on the road to Ango, in Bas Uelé district. The vehicles were part of a 17-strong convoy. The attackers made off with sacks of flour and drivers’ personal effects.