Major developing countries are again preparing to stand together on critical issues at the G20 heads of government meeting in Pittsburgh Sep 24-25. But Southern solidarity may need to move beyond the strategic common front presented at such summits to include a strengthening of continuing ties.

The World Bank (WB) has said it had suspended funding for two key projects, worth US$ 166 million, covering education, water and flood management in Kenya's western region, pending investigations into fraud and corruption. The Bank said the projects, including the Kenya Education Sector Support Programme (KESSP) and the Western Kenya Community-Driven Development and Flood Mitigati on Project (WKCDD), were suspended over corruption involving Bank staff and Kenyan officials.

Angolans are tired of waiting for presidential elections and may soon take to the streets in protest against delays, the head of the main opposition UNITA party has said. Angolan president Jose Eduardo dos Santos, in power for 30 years, has pushed back a presidential poll at least three times since the end of Angola's civil war in 2002.

A large quantity of petroleum products that were not properly cleaned up after the Ijegun pipeline rupture on May 15, 2008 have found its way into water-bearing wells used by residents of the community and may soon lead to massive explosions and loss of lives. ERA/FoEN monitors that visited Ijegun, located in Ikotun Local Government of Lagos State on Sunday September 13, 2009 observed that virtually all wells within the axis of the explosion and 14 streets away had large deposits of petrol that could be ignited by the strike of a match.

At least 36 million people were displaced by sudden-onset natural disasters which occurred in 2008, including over 20 million displaced by climate-related, sudden-onset disasters, according to a new report by NRC/IDMC and OCHA. In comparison, 4.6 million people were newly internally displaced during the year by conflict and violence. This report presents the results of a study carried out by IDMC and OCHA earlier this year.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has announced it will manage a $44 million fund to promote the peaceful staging of presidential, parliamentary and local elections next year in Burundi, which was been wracked by ethnically-based strife for decades. Through the fund, UNDP will assist the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) organize the polls, promote civic education about the election process, encourage media coverage and try to boost the participation of women in the elections.

Clan elders in northern Somalia's breakaway enclave of Somaliland voted on Friday to extend President Dahir Riyale Kahin's term on condition that a voter list be finalised and a date set for a presidential election. It was the third time since April 2008 that Somaliland's upper House of Elders has extended Kahin's term, which was due to expire on October 29. Opposition politicians in the lower House of Representatives have demanded the president be impeached.

A technical team from countries in the East African region, which has been meeting in Kampala, Uganda, has agreed on a pact paving the way for free movement of labour in the region. Once the Kampala Common Market Protocol is endorsed, professionals, services and capital owners will be able to move freely in the five countries of the East African Community (EAC).

It is not a typical classroom setup where pupils sit in rows facing the front with a teacher lecturing before them. Instead, Angel Hlatshwayo (13), like the rest of her colleagues, sits in an individual cubicle concentrating on the work before her. "This is a unique system of education which was started in the United States of America," explained Bulembu Christian Academy (BCA) principal Jon Skinner.

Every two years beginning in 1999, there has been a Pan African Reading for All Conference, sponsored by the International Development Committee for Africa, the leadership of African councils of the International Reading Association. The conference is independent of government and run by educators in their professional capacities. This AfricaFocus Bulletin, available on the web but not sent out by e-mail, contains one of the two keynote addresses by Ngugi wa Thiong'o, and the resolutions and recommendations from the conference.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food has presented his second report entitled “Crisis into opportunity: reinforcing multilateralism”, on the global food crisis to the UN Human Rights Council.

The climate crisis and the financial crisis highlight the need to organise for social change -- and also open unprecedented opportunities for doing so. But to prevent a destructive return to business as usual, the roots of both crises need to be understood, together with the nature and limitations of elite responses to them. As a contribution to this discussion, 10 new documents have recently been added to The Corner House's extensive collection of free books and articles on climate change and finance.

The Tanzanian government has refuted media reports indicating that it has leased out 1000 square kilometres of farmland to South Koreans. It was reported that South Korea had agreed to develop farmland in Tanzania, the latest in series of such deals between rich and poor nations.

National governments, in cooperation with international agencies and donors, should reconsider their decision to deport people living with HIV/AIDS, human rights groups said. A report, released by four HIV/AIDS and human rights groups, describes cases in South Korea, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, South Africa, and the US, in which HIV-positive migrants were deported, saying that there was the need to develop policies guaranteeing uninterrupted treatment for this class of people.

The United States has sent warning letters to 15 prominent Kenyans it says are blocking reform in east Africa's biggest economy following last year's post-election violence, the U.S. ambassador has said. Michael Ranneberger, the U.S. envoy to Kenya, declined to name the individuals. But he said they included sitting government ministers, members of parliament and other senior officials on both sides of the country's coalition government.

The UK government should not rely on unreliable "diplomatic assurances" against torture to deport national security suspects to Ethiopia, Human Rights Watch has said in a letter to the UK government. In December 2008, the United Kingdom and Ethiopia signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU), similar to those the UK has signed with Jordan, Lebanon and Libya. Under these MoUs, the receiving governments provide "diplomatic assurances" that they will not mistreat persons whom the other country transfers to their territory.

African leaders are at the forefront of a landmark initiative to protect all those at risk from malaria with life-saving interventions by the end of 2010, the United Nations Envoy for efforts to defeat the deadly disease says. The African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA) is tasked with ensuring that more than 240 million insecticide-treated bed nets are distributed throughout malaria-endemic countries on the continent by the end of 2010, with the aim of ending unnecessary deaths from the disease by 2015.

The drought crisis in war-torn Somalia is turning increasingly acute and spreading to regions previously spared, with half the country’s 7 million people in need of aid, an increasing risk of deaths, and insufficient international donor response, a senior United Nations official has said.“Somalia needs to be seen as a priority case,” UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Mark Bowden told a news briefing in New York.

Several health-related budget decisions taken in the past financial year violated the Constitution, the National Health Act, the Public Finance Management Act and the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act. This is according to a group of activists, researchers, unionists, health workers and academics who have written letters to the ministers of health and finance, expressing grave concern over budgeting practices within the public health system and the dire effect it is shaving on HIV/AIDS, including the antiretroviral (ARV) treatment and prevention of mother-to-child transmission programmes.

The second half of 2008 saw unfold one of the most significant financial crises in history that started in the United States and then spread to Europe, Asia and the rest of the world. The response was just as historic. To stave off regional and global recessions and restore stability and confidence in the market, northern governments are pursuing a massive and unprecedented program of government intervention, nationalizing banks, injecting massive subsidies into ailing institutions and re-regulating their financial sectors.