A Libyan writer and political commentator arrested and accused of a driving offence appears to have been targeted for calling for peaceful protests in the country, Amnesty International has said. Jamal al-Hajji, a former prisoner of conscience who has dual Libyan and Danish nationality, was detained on 1 February in Tripoli by plain clothes security officers. They accused him of hitting a man with his car, which he denies.

Former Liberian president Charles Taylor snubbed his war crimes trial for a second day on Wednesday (09 February), prompting judges to adjourn the case as they consider whether to allow a defence appeal over key documentation. Taylor, the first African ruler to stand trial for war crimes, has denied 11 charges of instigating murder, rape, mutilation, sexual slavery and conscription of child soldiers during a civil war in Sierra Leone in the 1990s.

In the wake of the Tunisian revolution, the country's once repressed music and cultural scene is flourishing. Rappers whose songs were once banned under former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali held their first public concert on Saturday (29 January) in Tunis. 'I now started to breathe freedom and the field has now become mine,' rapper Mohamed Ben Hamada said after ascending to the stage and raising the Tunisian flag to enthusiastic applause.

From the grassroots to the global, communities and movements are imagining and creating a world where people and planet come before profit, and democracy trumps corporate power. 6 Billion Ways is a day that explores this resistance through discussion, ideas, action and the arts. With speakers and practical workshops for all ages, debates, films, music and art, 6 Billion Ways is your chance to inspire and be inspired, and to make connections with others who want to challenge injustice and inequality, both in the UK and globally.

Fahamu events at 6 Billion Ways include:

- Africa: Empire and Resistance

Africa is still portrayed as a hopeless, famine-struck continent in need of rescue. In this session, leading thinkers will paint a more positive picture, and assess the hopes and prospects for African resistance in the twenty-first century.

Speakers

Samir Amin, Third World Forum, Senegal
Firoze Manji, Pambazuka News
Patrick Bond, Centre for Civil Society, University of KwaZulu-Natal

- Film: Tin Town

Promised housing by the South African government, more than a hundred Cape Town families found community through their struggle as squatters on a sandy road known as Symphony Way. Recently moved by court order to an indefinitely temporary relocation area dubbed ‘Tin Town’ or ‘Blikkiesdorp’ in Afrikaans, community members reflect on that road in their past and on the road ahead.

This is a short film followed by a discussion with Firoze Manji, Editor-in-chief at Pambazuka News.

The book 'No Land! No House! No Vote! Voices from Symphony Way' will also be launched at the screening.

In the following presentation,

'If David’s murder stimulates discussion about the violence and discrimination facing people because of their sexual orientation or their gender identity, then his death will not have been completely in vain. That discussion must inevitably address the question of decriminalizing homosexuality. Criminal sanctions for homosexuality remain on the statute books in more than 70 countries, including Uganda. Such laws are an anachronism, in most cases a hangover from the old days of colonial rule.'

South Africa is gearing up for its third local government election. In an attempt to break with the authoritarianism of his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki, President Jacob Zuma has promised a new approach to these elections, where more responsive candidates are selected that genuinely represent the will of the people. But, asks Jane Duncan, Highway Africa Chair of Media and Information Society at Rhodes University, will the promise of these elections be realised? And will the ANC respect the will of the people if it clashes with the will of the party?

Black smoke billowed across morning rush hour traffic as angry backyarders in Nyanga blockaded Lansdowne road with burning tyres on Tuesday, forcing commuters to find alternative routes to work.The Backyarders from Nyanga’s Mau-Mau, Old Location and White City areas were protesting over the lack of housing for them and demanding the provincial government allocate houses to backyarders in housing projects in the area.

Fear of infection and mass social change have driven a huge decline in HIV rates in Zimbabwe, offering important lessons on how to fight the Aids pandemic in the rest of Africa, scientists said on Tuesday (08 February). In a study in the journal PLoS Medicine, British researchers said Zimbabwe's pandemic was one of the biggest in the world until the rate of people infected with HIV almost halved, from 29 per cent of the population in 1997 to 16 per cent in 2007.

United Nations peacekeepers have positioned armoured personnel carriers and are patrolling an area in Sudan where units made up of Northern and Southern Sudanese troops clashed last week, killing 54 soldiers and wounding 85 others. 'The United Nations urges the parties to remain calm and exercise caution,' spokesman Martin Nesirky told a news briefing in New York, referring to the outbreak of violence in Malakal in Sudan’s Upper Nile State between 3 and 5 February.

In 2009, this paper from the Centre for International Media Assistance says, the Arab region had 35,000 active blogs and 40,000 by late 2010. Although Egypt’s interior ministry maintains a department of 45 people to monitor Facebook, nearly five million Egyptians use the social networking site among 17 million people in the region, including journalists, political leaders, political opposition figures, human rights activists, social activists, entertainers, and royalty who are engaging online in Arabic, English, and French. This paper was commissioned and largely reported in the period leading up to the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, and elsewhere in the region in early 2011. It is published as a stage-setter for the events that are rapidly unfolding in the Arab world.

As a wave of protests is sweeping North Africa, many Moroccans wonder if similar events will occur in the Kingdom. The apprehension is palpable. A youth movement, 'Liberty and Democracy Now', used Facebook to send out calls for peaceful demonstrations across the country on 20 February. It is time for an independent commission to carry out a comprehensive reform of the constitution, according to their statement.

For the Via Campesina, the 11th World Social Forum, in Dakar, Senegal, began on 6 February with something halfway between a march and parade.

Group for Research and Initiative for the Liberation of Africa, talks about the combination of the concepts of ‘Pan-Africanism’ and ‘Auto-Centrage,’ i.e ‘Pan-Afri-Centrage.’ in the context of South-South solidarity. Fall says that many of the movements from Africa have been co-opted by imperialism and we now have a historical responsibility to revive the demands of the Bamako Appeal.

The United Nations (UN) has expressed concern over the rising insecurity in Somalia, saying it would worsen the humanitarian crisis created by the ongoing drought in the region. UN Under Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Valerie Amos, said at the weekend that insecurity made it difficult to reach and assist internal refugees in need of assistance. She noted that one in every four children in the country was extremely malnourished while at the same time asking Kenya not to send any Somali refugees back.

Political leaders have committed to ramping up restoration of the world's forests and tackling poverty in forest communities as part of pledges made at the ninth session Forum on Forests. Rwanda, in central eastern Africa, led the way with promises to launch a 25-year plan to tackle ecosystem degradation and improve rural livelihoods, a move hailed by environmental groups including the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

A lack of community support and persistent discrimination is being blamed for the re-recruitment of former child soldiers by the army and militias in Masisi territory, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC. Former child soldiers are being especially targeted in Kitchanga, 80 kilometres north-west of Goma. The town used to be a stronghold of the National Congress for the Defence of the People, CNDP, a rebel group which has now been officially integrated into the armed forces.

Côte d’Ivoire has been in a political impasse since the declaration of contested results of a second round of presidential elections held in November 2010. Since both candidates claimed victory and have been sworn in, the country has two presidents and two governments. In order to understand the impact of this situation on women and women’s rights organisations, AWID spoke with two women’s rights defenders, Mata Coulibaly President of SOS EXCLUSION and Honorine Sadia Vehi Toure, President of Génération Femmes du troisième Millénaire (GFM3), as well as with an Ivorian politician who prefers to remain anonymous and to whom we have given the pseudonym of Sophie.

The International Federation of Journalists has mourned the loss of the first journalist to die in the social unrest in Egypt. Journalist Ahmed Mohammed Mahmoud died in hospital in Cairo from injuries sustained after he was shot in the eye by a sniper. The journalist, aged 39, worked for the A’wada newspaper, a part of the Al Ahram media group. His death comes after a week of continuing unrest that has seen journalists and media staff among those targeted by groups loyal to the regime of President Hosni Mubarak.

The paper presents a wide range of data on Mozambique and examines what this shows about changes to poverty and income levels over the past decade. The authors point to the lack of changes in farming practice which is contributing to the persistence of poverty and consider cash income and the poverty trap in Mozambique. The paper goes on to discuss the failure of donor-led development models.