Sub-Saharan Africa needs to double its infrastructure spending to $93 billion a year, 15 percent of regional output, to drag its road, water and power networks into the 21st century, a report said on Thursday. The research compiled by the Infrastructure Consortium for Africa (ICA) identified the continent's woeful electricity grids as its most pressing challenge, with 30 countries facing regular blackouts and high premiums for emergency power.

On the heels of a federal appeals court ruling that only the U.S. Congress and the executive branch of government - not the courts - can interfere with government-sponsored "extraordinary rendition", a U.S. citizen from New Jersey is asking another court to tell the government it wasn't okay to secretly imprison and abuse him in three different African countries over a period of four months.

On November 8/9, China’s and Africa’s governments will meet for the 4th summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Sharm-el-Sheik, Egypt. A report published by International Rivers finds that China and Africa have been successful in boosting their financial and economic cooperation, but have failed to deal seriously with the environmental challenges that have resulted from their growing cooperation.

The New York State African Studies Association (NYASA) will hold its 2010 annual conference on March 26-27 at Binghamton University under the auspices of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies. In view of the impending change in the global order and power relations, and in light of the accelerating interactions between Africa and Asia, the annual conference invites abstracts and proposals for presentations, panels and roundtables on the above general theme and its variations.

On November 5, 2009, Christian Aid partners OMUNGA and SOS Habitat were awarded the Civil Society Human Rights National Award, organized by the Human Rights Coordination Committee and Open Society Foundation –Angola. The award was implemented for the first time this year and is granted to organisations and individuals that have contributed to the defence, respect, protection and guarantee of human rights in Angola. This is a fantastic recognition of our partner’s human rights work in the country.

The Partnership for Change has urged President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga to cooperate with the ICC and ensure The Special Tribunal Bill is passed and enacted into law within two weeks, failing which, Kenyans resolve to "starve the government of money".

Armando Nenane

Enedina de Andrade e Boaventura Monjane

With cheap labour, investment incentives and unrestricted exports, one Chinese textile group has turned to Egypt as an ideal location to produce its ready-made garments, beating stiff competition at home. The Chinese-owned Nile Textile Group has set up shop in the Port Said free zone, overlooking the north entrance of the Suez Canal, and developed an industrial estate now hiring 600 workers, 20 percent of which are Chinese and the rest Egyptian.

A new technology called "biochar" is being promoted as a major “geo-engineering” solution to global climate change, as well as a means of improving soils and addressing poverty according to this new report by The African Biodiversity Network, Biofuelwatch and The Gaia Foundation. However, this technology raises serious scientific and social concerns. Many questions need to be answered before claims about biochar can stand up to scrutiny.

Isaac Newton Kinity stresses that arguments around election rigging are no excuse for Kenya's 2007–08 post-election violence.

The Chinese government defended its decision not to block a UN Security Council resolution in 2005 referring the situation in Darfur to the International Criminal Court (ICC).Beijing, despite being a strong ally of Khartoum, abstained from voting on the resolution outraging Sudanese officials who accused China of failing to “protect its friends”.

A coalition of human rights organisations have expressed deep concern about the hostile context in which human rights defenders and journalists operate in The Gambia where hindrances to freedom of expression, arbitrary arrests and detentions, murders and judicial harassment against them are recurrent.

The Fourth Ministerial Conference of the China-Africa Cooperation Forum (FOCAC) opened in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on November 6 2009. Pambazuka News brings you a transcript of a press conference by Premier Wen Jiabao held on November 9, 2009.

President Mubarak has called on the Extraordinary African Summit for Refugees and Displaced Persons to alleviate the pains of the refugees, to protect them and to facilitate their safe return to their homelands, as he said “we are capable to do this with our own resources and with the support of the international community and our international partners”.

The spike in food prices of last year (2008) underscored what experts have been telling us for many years: the world's food systems are in crisis. The High Level Task Force on the Global Food Security Crisis (HLTF) and its members have supported -over the last 8 months- national authorities as they respond to food and nutrition insecurity. This tracks the progress of the task force over this period.

EISA, the Electoral Institute for Southern Africa, has added to the criticism of Mozambique's National Elections Commission (CNE) . The problem started with the selection of civil society CNE members. “The transparency in the selection of CSO [civil society] representatives was questionable, thereby casting doubt over the integrity, impartiality and independence of the CNE”

Sudan has started registering voters for presidential, legislative and regional elections, but officials in the south and international observers say the process has begun on a flawed note.

At least 16,000 civilians have fled deadly clashes in western Democratic Republic of Congo and are now languishing, many without food or shelter, in neighbouring Republic of Congo, according to the UN and local officials.

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Rwandan journalist, Amani Ntakandi of the bi-monthly Rus hyashya published in Kigali, has been released by the people's courts, 'Gacaca', of Mbazi in the south of the country, after serving a three-month sentence for "illegally" reporting on the proceedings of these courts.