The country’s security chiefs have taken the current political fight over the reappointment of Gideon Gono a step further, threatening to take up arms to prevent the removal of the Reserve Bank Governor from his post. Robert Mugabe on Monday declared that Gono, his money-man for many years, will retain his job despite the political deadlock that has been created with the MDC over Gono’s position.

2009 is the year of the Big Change. Cheaper and more abundant international fibre capacity will come to East Africa and 2010 will see the same happen in West Africa. New cross-border fibre connections will tie more countries together: two announcements are in the news sections below. But Africa is in danger of getting all the pipes and hardware in place and missing out on thinking about the user and the services and applications they might use.

Niger's president has dissolved parliament after the country's constitutional court ruled against plans to hold a referendum on whether to allow him a third term in office. Mamadou Tandja gave the order to dissolve the legislature on Tuesday, hours after the court said a move by the ruling coalition to hold a public vote on a third presidential term was illegal.

An innovative new campaign was recently launched in Johannesburg, that aims to ensure that young people are empowered to use their cell phones and the Internet for positive self expression. The campaign was launched by Girls’Net, a daughter project of Women’sNet. Says Faith Nkomo of Girls’Net “80% of young people have access to a cellphone – we must be acting to make sure we take advantage of this tool to help young people access opportunities and create positive social spaces to interact in.”

The Chadian government handed 82 under-18 child soldiers over to UNICEF during an official ceremony. The children were caught following armed clashes between the Chadian national army and rebels of the Union of the Resistance Forces (UFR).

The European Union is not yet ready to establish normal ties with Zimbabwe or resume aid despite a "positive evolution" in politics there, according to a letter made public Thursday. "The EU shares your opinion that there are indications of a positive evolution of the political situation in Zimbabwe," the bloc said in a letter to John Kaputin, secretary general of African, Caribbean and Pacific nations.

Authorities in Freetown have charged Sylvia Blyden, Publisher and managing editor of the privately-owned 'Awareness Times' newspaper in Sierra Leone, with “defaming” President Ernest Bai Koroma, the sub-regional rights body, Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), said in a statement received by PANA Thursday.

Africa Spectrum no. 1/2009 has just been published. It has established itself among the internationally acknowledged and accredited peer-reviewed African Studies journals and is included in the relevant internationally recognized abstracting and indexing lists. Africa Spectrum is with immediate effect an Open Access journal. We thereby seek to contribute towards reducing the existing asymmetric relations in the global academic world. As of the next issue (no. 2/2009) Africa Spectrum will also be published exclusively in English. We would like to encourage all to visit our web site and invite scholars to submit manuscripts:

Harare Magistrate, Catherine Chimanda on 28 May 2009 ruled that editors of the Zimbabwe Independent , Vincent Kahiya and Constantine Chimakure, appear for trial on 16 June 2009. The two are charged under Section 31 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act which criminalises the communication of statements that are likely to undermine public confidence in the law enforcement agents.

The West African Development Bank (BOAD) has loaned Mali a bout US$14 million for the partial financing of road projects in the capital, Bamako. Official sources said the money would be used to help build a multiple interchan geat La Paix roundabout in Bamako, develop the city section of the Main Road (RN 5) and Kwame Nkrumah Avenue.

In the autumn of 2008 Panos London worked with participants from the African HIV Policy Network (AHPN) to produce digital stories about their lives and concerns. All the participants are living with HIV and were at risk of being removed to their country of origin where treatment is not necessarily accessible, affordable or available. These stories are being used as part of AHPN's Destination Unknown campaign.

Norway said on Monday it was renewing aid to Zimbabwe it cut off in 2000, despite worries about what it called "years of misrule, embezzlement and hyperinflation" under President Robert Mugabe. The Norwegian government, one of the first to renew badly needed aid, said it would give 58 million crowns (5.8 million pounds) via non-governmental organizations, the World Bank and United Nations, avoiding the government financial system.

Amina Saho-Ceesay, sitting at Banjul Magistrates' Court, has set 15 June for ruling on Point Newspaper's Managing Editor and Reuters correspondent, Pap Saine's matter, PANA was informed Thursday. According to reliable sources, the judgement date was fixed during the Wednesday session of the court after Saine's lawyers had urged the magistrate to “acquit and discharge” the journalist, arguing that the prosecution had failed to establish “a prima-facie case” and that Saine had “no case” to answer.

Prof Philip Alston, a UN human rights official, on Thursday released his final report in which he accuses top police officials of running death squads and describes Kenyan courts as “slow and corrupt”. Describing the state of Kenyan justice system is “terrible”, Prof Alston said: “Investigation, prosecution and judicial processes are slow and corrupt.”

UNRISD is now accepting applications for a two to three-month internship position to begin in July 2009 (preferred starting date: 2 July) in the Gender and Development Programme (GAD). Eligible candidates must be currently enrolled in a master’s or PhD degree programme (as per UN Secretariat rules regarding interns) in economics, sociology, political science or a related field from an accredited university and have academic and professional experience in issues related to gender and social development. Written and spoken fluency in English is essential.

African countries are giving away vast tracts of farmland to other countries and investors almost for free, with the only benefits consisting of vague promises of jobs and infrastructure, according to a report published on Monday. “Most of the land deals documented by this study involved no or minimal land fees,” it says. Although the deals promise jobs and infrastructure development, it warns that “these commitments tend to lack teeth” on the contracts.

Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade on Thursday granted audience to the head of Madagascar’s transitional authority, Andry Rajoelina, the Senegalese press Agency (APS) reported. “I am leaving with a feeling of relief in the sense that the situation which prevails in Madagascar has been clarified to President Wade who is leading mediation between the two parties,” said Mr Rajoelina, who ousted President Marc Ravalomanana in March.

Defence ministers on 18 May discussed a French proposal to enhance the EU naval operation fighting piracy off the Somali coasts with a police training mission in the African country that could start in September. "There was a French proposal discussed today on a police training mission in Somalia, but no decision was taken yet," Czech minister of defence Martin Bartak told a press conference after the meeting.

Even by Africa’s grim standards, it was a horrendous statistic: 5.4m people have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo from “war-related causes since 1998”, claimed the International Rescue Committee in January last year. The figure, based on a series of house-to-house visits across the country conducted by the New York-based agency, won widespread acceptance. It was used by the IRC and other relief bodies in their appeals for funds, cited by diplomats in their efforts to restore peace to the region and reported by journalists seeking a statistical shorthand for an African catastrophe.

The Climate Change Media Partnership (CCMP) has opened its 2009 Fellowship Programme. It encourages all journalists in developing countries who report on climate change to apply. This programme comes during a critical year of negotiations that ends in December with the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen where a new global deal could be struck.