Two years after oil began flowing in Ghana, ordinary Ghanaians are wondering where the oil money is going. The government says there has not been much oil revenue coming in thus far, and analysts say the money that is coming in is not reaching the poor. Vast reserves of oil were discovered in Ghana in 2007, and production began almost two years ago in the Jubilee Oil Field off Ghana’s western coast. In 2011, its first year of production, Ghana brought in about $444 million - which was half of expected revenue.

A group of smallholder farmers in Mali have turned to the courts to try to recover land they say they have lost to big private investors. The legal action comes as foreign investors are losing interest in Mali due to political instability and an armed rebellion in the north. 'We have laid a complaint against the agricultural land grabs that have hit so many smallholders,' said Lamine Coulibaly, a member of the National Coordination of Peasant Organisations, which is resisting the large-scale acquisition of agricultural land by foreign investors.

On the International Day of Peace, Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka visited the United Nations – and called for armed intervention against the terrorist group Boko Haram in his home country of Nigeria. 'This is a violent organisation,' Soyika told IPS. 'What do you do with them? I am sorry, but you must fight them.' On 21 September 2012 the International Day of Peace was celebrated with a debate about how to build a global culture of tolerance.

This drought-prone country of 16 million is so short on food that it is ranked dead last by international aid organization Save the Children in the percentage of children receiving a 'minimum acceptable diet'. The consequences are dire. A total of 51 per cent of children in Niger are stunted, according to a report published in July by Save the Children. The average height of a 2 1/2-year-old girl born here is around 3 inches (8 centimeters) shorter than what it should be for a child that age.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has strongly condemns the killing of four journalists in twenty-four hours. 'This is definitely a war against journalists. The authorities must stop it so as not to become partners of the authors of these terrible acts,' said Gabriel Baglo, IFJ Africa Director. According to the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), an IFJ affiliate, three journalists were killed on Thursday 20 September in a horrifying suicide attack in Mogadishu restaurant frequented by journalists.

With the Bangkok round of UN sponsored climate negotiations just through, the BASIC quartet - Brazil, South Africa, India and China - came together in Brasilia to discuss their common negotiating position for the year end talks in Doha, Qatar. While there are differences within the quartet over the legal nature of the new climate regime talks on which will be held in Doha, and the controversial European Union Emission Trading Scheme, there is enough common ground between these countries. The one issue of clear agreement was the quartet's commitment to the extension of the Kyoto Protocol, the iconic 1997 treaty, which legally required developed countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Workers at several Anglo Platinum mines have decided to continue their strike, despite management threats to dismiss all those who didn't show up to work by Monday evening. The strikers, who hope to meet with management on Tuesday, are pushing for at least the 11-22 per cent raises that Lonmin miners at the nearby Marikana mine received after a deadly strike that left 46 dead.

Morocco's justice minister has admitted to 'several cases of abuse' by police at recent protests, a local newspaper reported, saying the government would review how such protests were dealt with by them. 'There have been several cases of abuse by the police forces of citizens' protesting,' Mustapha Ramid was quoted as saying by the Arabic-language daily Akhbar al-Youm. 'The government must review the way in which the security forces intervene, to ensure that it conforms with the law,' he added, referring to peaceful protests violently dispersed by baton-wielding riot police in recent days.

Ethics Minister Fr Simon Lokodo recently appeared before the High Court in Kampala over the closure of a gay meeting in Entebbe, but was not cross examined as earlier expected. Lokodo, along with the Attorney General, is being sued by four gay activists – Jacqueline Kasha Nabagesera, Julian Pepe Onziema, Frank Mugisha and Geoffrey Ogwaro – who accuse him of infringing on their rights when he closed their ongoing two-week meeting in February.

The police in Bauchi in northern Nigeria said Sunday morning's suicide bombing at a Catholic Church in the city left three dead and 46 injured, representing an increase in the figure of one dead earlier given by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). Police spokesman Hassan Auyo gave the fIgures to journalists, saying those killed included the suicide bomber. According to Auyo, the suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden vehicle at the gate of the St. John's Catholic Church after a barricade erected there prevent him from driving into the premises during the early morning Mass.

Women farmers in Côte d’Ivoire are achieving greater autonomy and economic independence thanks to new varieties of cassava. Cassava is an important staple food in this West African country according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, second only to yams, a similar starchy tuber. Farmers in the southern and eastern parts of the country have taken up three high-yielding varieties of cassava, known as Bocou 1, 2 and 3, which are resistant to disease and pests, according to Boni N’zué, the coordinator of the Cassava Project, an initiative launched in 2008 by the country’s National Centre for Agricultural Research.

Thousands of Somali refugee adolescent girls ages 10 to 16 are living in refugee camps in Ethiopia. This report from the Women's Refugee Commission details their protection and empowerment needs and priorities; programs and community-based strategies that serve them; and gaps in services from girls’ perspectives.

The Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellows Program at the Washington, DC–based National Endowment for Democracy invites applications for fellowships in 2013–2014. This federally funded program enables democracy activists, practitioners, scholars, and journalists from around the world to deepen their understanding of democracy and enhance their ability to promote democratic change.

Pro-and anti-Malema factions have vowed to demonstrate outside court as the expelled ANC Youth League leader faces criminal charges. The Polokwane Regional Court looks set to become the stage for a media circus, as both supporters and opponents of expelled ANC Youth League president Julius Malema vowed to launch protests and counter-protests in the Limpopo town ahead of his court appearance this week.

An international AIDS vaccine conference held in Boston, in America, discussed the importance of community participation in the search for a preventative AIDS vaccine. Jim Maynard of the HIV Trials Network says the development of a vaccine will succeed or fail depending on the buy-in of community members in every society. 'I don’t think the vaccine work can progress at all without the community. It’s asking a huge sacrifice from any community, saying: "We’d like to work with your people and try something that we hope will save millions of lives, but we don’t know because it is experimental’". And, if you’re going to ask something that big of them, the community can then say: "How will this help our community? If you do succeed in this vaccine, will we get access to this vaccine?"'

The French government has ordered an investigation into genetically-modified corn after a study found it was linked to cancer. France's government asked a health watchdog to carry out a probe, possibly leading to EU suspension of a genetically-modified corn, after a study in rats linked the grain to cancer.

Anuak indigenous people from Ethiopia’s Gambella region have submitted a complaint to the World Bank Inspection Panel implicating the Bank in grave human rights abuses perpetrated by the Ethiopian Government. The complaint alleges that the Anuak people have been severely harmed by the World Bank-financed and administered Protection of Basic Services Project (PBS), which has provided 1.4 billion USD in sectoral budget support for the provision of basic services to the Ethiopian Government since 2006.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has said the seeking of asylum is not a criminal act and those who seek it should not be detained. In a statement obtained by PANA in New York Sunday, the UN refugee agency also called on all states to seek out alternatives to detention when dealing with migrants and refugees. The statement, issued following the agency’s new guidelines on the detention of asylum-seekers, urged the world’s governments to make better use of alternatives to detention for those irregular migrants seeking refuge within their borders.

Global leaders from governments, international organizations and civil society have endorsed an urgent Call to Action to ensure the world’s most vulnerable children and youth receive a good quality education by protecting schools from attacks, significantly increasing humanitarian aid for education and planning and budgeting for emergencies before they occur. The leaders urged immediate action for the 28 million children – nearly half of all children not in primary school – who live in countries scarred by war and conflict, as well as millions more struck by humanitarian emergencies such as flooding, food shortages, earthquakes and other disasters.

Civil rights organisation Touche pas à ma nationalité TPMN (in English: Do not interfere with my citizenship) has called for a large march on September 27, 2012 in the capital Nouakchott to commemorate the passing of anti-racism activist Lamine Mangane. Mangane was killed a year ago by authorities in the town of Maghama during protests against a census that marginalized black citizens of Mauritania.