The three principals in the unity government, Robert Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara, have met five times recently to discuss the controversies surrounding the implementation of the Global Political Agreement, but they have still failed to come up with a solution. Observers say this ‘dilly-dallying’ has been part of Zanu PF's strategy to wear the MDC down while not addressing the fundamental issues.

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) expressed its strong condemnation and dismay at the continued detention since 3 October 2008 of the Christian blogger, Hani Nazeer, by state security. His arrest was carried out in coordination with the Church in Naga Hammadi, his hometown in Qena Governorate. Nazeer is the author of the .

Open source document manager, KnowledgeTree, has released a new community edition of its application with a new text extraction engine and stability improvements. This latest release of the application, version 3.6 Community Edition, also includes a new core API and RESTful interface to improve application integration

The authorities in Zimbabwe have continued their persecution of two officials of the Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Gandhi Mudzingwa and Kisimusi Dhlamini have been detained under armed police guard in a Harare hospital since 20 April, despite having been released on bail on 17 April.

Ensuring gender equality and promoting the participation of women in the search for peace in Darfur are among the aims of a new initiative launched by the United Nations in the strife-torn Sudanese region. Under a cooperation agreement announced today, police serving with the joint African Union-UN hybrid operation in Darfur (UNAMID) will team up with the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) to support innovative measures to boost the standing of women in the region.

Fears are being expressed that another poor rainy season could lead to a 'severe' humanitarian crisis in Kenya. The Kenya meteorological department is predicting the long rains will be poorly distributed and too little. It follows an appeal from the government for food aid for up to ten million people.

Laying of the Sh10.4 billion ($130 million) undersea fibre optic cable -the East Africa Marine System (TEAMs)- started on Friday and is expected to take two months in a race to beat the June deadline. This follows inspection of the manufactured cables, trenching equipment and commissioning of the shore-end cable at the Fujairah port by board members of the TEAMs project in United Arab Emirates.

When stock is taken of the Kenyan coalition government’s first year in office no marks will be awarded to its handling of extra-judicial killings in the country. Human rights activists claim that the police have murdered about 500 people in the past 16 months. The government, constituted after a mediation process between President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s parties following a disputed presidential poll in December 2007, has dithered on its pledge that it would address the killings.

I-Network, the IICD-supported national Information and Communication Network in Uganda assisted in forming a protection association for Ugandan Information and Communication Technology (ICT) consumers. The association was officially launched on March 20 in Kampala.

Made possible through a generous grant from the Fred J. Hansen Foundation, the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice's (IPJ) Women PeaceMakers Program invites four women from around the world who have been locally involved in human rights and peacemaking efforts. Women accepted into this program are seeking ways to further their peacemaking efforts in their home countries.

The World Bank has announced it was doubling its education financing this year in low- and middle-income countries to $4.09 billion to help poor countries battle threats to their education systems during the global economic crisis. The announcement came as the Bank released a new report that describes how developing countries are increasingly using private education organizations - such as faith-based organisations, local communities, NGOs, private for-profit institutions, and not-for profit schools - to help deliver education services.

After months of speculation about how the global economic downturn might affect HIV/AIDS programmes, a new World Bank report details the projected aftermath of the crisis and how it could place the treatment of more than 1.7 million at risk by year's end. Drug shortages, treatment interruptions and higher burdens of AIDS-related diseases are just some of the grim predictions for developing countries, laid out in a recently released report, Averting a Human Crisis During the Global Downturn: Policy Options from the World Bank's Human Development Network.

Based on assessment of all available information, and following several expert consultations, it has been decided to raise the current level of influenza pandemic alert from phase 4 to phase 5. Influenza pandemics must be taken seriously precisely because of their capacity to spread rapidly to every country in the world.

Omar Faruk Osman, President FAJ Tuesday 21 April told a gathering of Human Rights Defenders in Kampala, Uganda, that journalists and media workers in Africa face series of threats ranging from safety and security, repressive laws, oppressive regimes, monopolies, bad labour practices and unfair competition.

An influential women rights organisation in Malawi, Women in Law in Southern Africa-Malawi (WILSA-Malawi), is suing the government of Malawi for preventing women from accessing safe abortion. Malawian law prohibits abortion - Section 149 of the country’s penal code says any person who administers abortion shall be liable to imprisonment for 14 years, while Section 150 indicates that any woman who solicits abortion is liable to seven years imprisonment.

This latest policy briefing from the International Crisis Group, argues that the Technical Committee report submitted on 1 December 2008 represents the most promising effort to develop a coherent strategy in the Delta. It urges the government to seize the opportunity for ending armed conflict and beginning longer-term development in the oil-rich region.

Up to 1.7 million people in Africa, Eastern Europe, the Caribbean and Asia are at risk of antiretroviral treatment interruption due to the global financial downturn, according to a survey published by the World Bank.The World Bank report Averting a human crisis during the global downturn was published in advance of the World Bank’s spring meeting in Washington DC.

The United Nations anti-racism conference in Geneva concluded its general debate after hearing statements on new forms of racist discrimination and expelling three non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for disruptive behaviour. A number of the UN agencies spoke at the five-day Durban Review Conference, which comes to a close tomorrow, including the International Labour Organization (ILO), which warned that saying no to racism in the work is key to promoting respect, tolerance and inclusiveness.

Mobiles in-a-box from the Tactical Technology Collective is a collection of tools, tactics, how-to guides and case studies designed to help advocacy and activist organisations use mobile technology in their work. Mobiles in-a-box is designed to inspire you, to present possibilities for the use of mobile telephony in your work and to introduce you to some tools which may help you. After reading the material in this toolkit you can expect to be able to design and implement a mobile advocacy strategy for your organisation. >>

Researchers in Africa fear they may not be able to identify swine flu cases swiftly enough to prevent the spread of infection because there are so many diseases around with similar symptoms. Although swine flu has spread from Mexico to several other continents it has not yet been reported in Africa and in some respects the continent is well prepared, say researchers. Rapid response teams are accustomed to reacting to diseases such as meningitis and Rift Valley fever, as well as completely unknown new infections.