Zimbabwe's new inclusive government should carry out comprehensive justice reforms without delay to ensure accountability for past abuses, the US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Thursday. The New York-based organisation noted that as the first year anniversary for Zimbabwe’s controversial elections approached on March 29, the country’s neighbours should take the opportunity to press the unity government to demonstrate its commitment to human rights reforms before releasing development aid.

Guinea-Bissau cannot afford to hold elections following the assassination of its president earlier this month, Cape Verde's prime minister says. Cape Verde is helping co-ordinate efforts to restore order in its fellow former Portuguese colony. According to the constitution, polls should be held within 60 days.

The Kenyan government should urgently renew efforts to revise and enact bills to create a special tribunal to try those responsible for last year's election violence, Human Rights Watch said today. The organization also issued a memo explaining the procedures of the International Criminal Court in relation to the special tribunal.

Major floods in late 2008 and 2009 have plunged southern Africa into a growing humanitarian crisis, killing dozens and displacing thousands. The Zambezi River Basin is affected annually by floods, bringing death and disease to those living along the banks. The fourth largest river in Africa, has its source in Zambia and flows through Angola, back into Zambia, and along the borders of Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe to Mozambique, where it empties into the Indian Ocean.

China's top legislator Wu Bangguo on Monday pledged to work with Seychelles to push forward relations between the two countries and their parliaments. Wu, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, made the remarks when meeting with Seychelles National Assembly Speaker Patrick Herminie.

A delegation of the China Council for Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) arrived in Abidjan, the capital of Cote d'Ivoire, on Saturday for a three-day visit to follow up a blueprint set in 2006 between China and West African countries. The Chinese delegation headed by CCPIT Vice-Chairman Zhang Wei has been on a mission since March 14 to boost cooperation with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), according to a communiqué released by the regional bloc.

Chinese government is to make available a grant of seven million dollars for the construction of a 100-bed capacity general hospital in Ghana. The ultra modern hospital, to be sited at Teshie would also have an anti malaria centre and is scheduled to be completed in about two years. Mr Yu Wenzhe Ambassador of China made this known when he paid a courtesy call on the Health Minister Dr. George Sipa Yankey.

In 2003, the Muslim Marriages Bill (Bill) was submitted by the South African Law Reform Commission (SALRC) to the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development (Minister of Justice). Since then, to our knowledge, the Minister of Justice has not done anything to move forward with the Bill in the parliamentary process (even though the SALRC undertook four years of extensive consultations from 1999 to 2003 within the Muslim communities and broader civil society when it drafted the Bill and obtained a general consensus within the Muslim communities for the Bill).

Girl Child Network (GCN) turns 10 years on 21 March 2009, and in this regard, girls, GCN staff, stakeholders and friends in Zimbabwe are all looking back and reflecting on this noble path travelled. All of us are busy preparing for the official commemoration of GCN’s 10th Anniversary scheduled for 28 March 2009. A summarised informative document regarding GCN’s work and the commemoration will be issued soon by GCN’s Communications and Development Office, which will also include the program of the day.

Mali has projected a budget of CFA F 239 billion (US$475 million) for the 2009-2010 'agricultural campaign' aimed at raising the production of rice, maize and wheat, government sources told PANA here Wednesday.

Giles Mutsekwa, Zimbabwe’s co-Home Affairs Minister, says a truth and reconciliation commission should be put in place as a way of promoting national healing in a country smarting from unprecedented politically-motivated violence. Mutsekwa told cheering supporters at a rally in Dangamvura township in Mutare those responsible for brutalising Zimbabweans should voluntarily come forward and apologize to the nation.

Most people in Ethiopia's lower Omo River Valley continue to exist much as they have done for hundreds of years with virtually no concession to the 21st Century, with one disturbing exception: automatic weapons. Almost every male carries a Kalashnikov or an M-16 assault rifle, and what might in the past have been a fairly innocuous dispute over grazing or water-rights between different groups, now frequently escalates into bloody warfare.

How can elections be turned into a development asset in Africa? This study by the Institute of Security Studies argues that in order for elections to become a real asset, African countries need to implement effective decentralisation, including the empowerment of local communities within a rationalised national plan. If they can do this they will also prevent conflicts and achieve increased national self-confidence and self-empowerment in relation to the global politico-economic and strategic environment.

A prominent Gambian opposition figure arrested on 8 March and later charged with sedition and spying, was unconditionally released on Friday. Halifa Sallah is believed to have been arrested for articles he wrote for the main opposition newspaper Foroyya, which claimed that witch doctors accompanied by members of the army, police and the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) including “the green boys” - Gambian President Yahya Jammeh's personal protection guards - were identifying people as witches.

More opportunities for Chinese investment into Africa are to open up soon, with the announcement that China is to bolster its China-Africa Development Fund by an additional US$2-billion. The state-run equity fund has already invested in 20 projects, totalling a massive $400-million, in Africa since it was established in June 2007.

Copper stockpiling by a secretive Chinese state organisation has helped trigger an impressive rally of almost 35 per cent in the price of the metal this year. Copper’s fortunes are closely tied to the industrial cycle so the price jump, bigger than that of gold, has grabbed attention outside the commodities market, with some questioning whether it could signal a turning point for economic growth.

At the time when financial storm hit the entire world economy, China came to emerge in the global spotlight viewed as the Salvager to rescue the deepening downward spiral from meltdown, as it boasts bulky foreign exchange reserves and the steadily growing economy, decelerating right now, though.

For its Investigative Journalism Helpdesk in Johannesburg, South Africa, the (pan-African) Forum for African Investigative Reporters (FAIR), seeks a Peer mentor/editor to assist investigative journalism projects carried out by African investigative journalists, either individually or as FAIR grantees and FAIR team projects.

On April 10th, family members of the Cuban Five imprisoned in the United States have an appointment in the U.S. Interests Section in Havana , Cuba , to request their visas. This will be the tenth time that Adriana Perez, wife of Gerardo Hernandez, will request a visa to see her husband in a prison in the U.S. where he is serving an unjust sentence. During a decade, the United States government has denied this couple the possibility of seeing each other.

Nigeria and China have signed a contract for a new communications satellite that will replace one sidelined by a power failure, a newspaper reported Wednesday. According to the contract signed in Beijing on Tuesday, the replacement satellite has been named NIGCOMSAT-1R and is due to be launched by 2011 with no cost to Nigeria, the Lagos-based Guardian reported. The new space vehicle will replace NIGCOMSAT-1, which was launched on May 14, 2007, but was displaced on Nov. 10, 2008, because of a solar power failure that occurred on one edge of the satellite.