Immigration detainees facing deportation at Heathrow airport are being treated as though they are parcels, not people, the chief inspector of prisons in the UK, Anne Owers, has complained. She also found too many cases of force being used on reluctant deportees to take them to aircraft, with the counterproductive result that airlines refused to carry them.

Ethiopia has issued its first broadcasting licenses allowing private radio stations to operate in the Horn of Africa nation, officials said on Monday. The licenses were issued to two radio stations that will broadcast on FM, following a decision reached in February, according to Sissay Melese, spokesman for the Ethiopian Broadcast Authority (EBA).

wikidPad is a Wiki-like notebook for storing your thoughts, ideas, todo lists, contacts, or anything else you can think of to write down. What makes wikidPad different from other notepad applications is the ease with which you can cross-link your information.

Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge wants a new sheriff to police the global economy, a revamped and strengthened International Monetary Fund that would engage in "ruthless truth telling." In a speech at the Harvard Club, he expressed clear frustration with the failure of the world's leading industrialized countries to pursue reforms that he said are needed to head off a looming financial crisis. He proposed retooling the IMF to make it the global institution responsible for co-ordinating market-friendly reforms around the world, and for issuing warnings when countries fail to heed danger signs in their own economies.

An ongoing probe into the misuse of money from the Global Fund on AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Uganda has unearthed a "pile of filth" in the running of affairs in the East African country, according to the head of the commission of inquiry. Following the suspension in August 2005 of five grants worth US $367 million, questions had arisen regarding the fund managers' integrity. The Global Fund lifted its suspension in November 2005, after agreeing with the government on ways to overhaul the management of the fund. President Yoweri Museveni ordered a judicial inquiry into the use of the money.

The Government Accountability Project (GAP) has hailed a 10-page investigative report focusing on corruption at the World Bank. The article in the April 3 edition of US News & World Report focuses on extensive internal problems at the bank including how “kickbacks, payoffs, bribery, embezzlement, and collusive bidding plague bank-funded projects around the world.” The report estimates that more than 20 percent of the loans distributed by the World Bank, or $4 billion annually, are associated with corrupt practices.

Sur – International Journal on Human Rights welcomes contributions to be published in its coming issues. The Journal is published twice a year, distributed free of charge to approximately 3,000 readers in over 100 countries. It is edited in three languages: English, Portuguese and Spanish and can also be accessed through the internet at

This report presents the situation of 1,172 human rights defenders oppressed, as well as obstacles to freedom of association in nearly 90 countries This publication is an opportunity to alert the international public opinion on the situation of these men and women who, in spite of the tremendous risks they face, persist in denouncing the human rights violations they have witnessed.

Saving pandas, gorillas or tigers, often portrayed by critics of conservation as a trivial pursuit compared to the many other problems facing humanity, not only stops endangered species from going extinct but also helps reduce poverty and improves the lives of local communities in many parts of the world, says a new report by the World Wildlife Fund.

As the trade negotiations following the WTO conference in Hong Kong intensify, rich countries discuss many of the remaining issues in small and exclusive conferences. Focus on the Global South warns that these arrangements further undermine poor countries' ability to benefit from the Doha trade round. The publication also looks at the progress made to liberalize agricultural, non-agricultural and service markets.
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* NGO coalition calls for Paris Club debt negotiations to be moved to Africa

103 million children of primary school age are not in school; 58 million are girls. Two-thirds of illiterate adults are women. In a typical developing country, giving girls 1 additional year of schooling would save as many as 60,000 children's lives.

The One World Trust is recognised as one of the leaders of the debate about the accountability of global organisations and is developing a new programme work in the area of global peace and security. We are looking for a new director who is able to consolidate the growth and develop the current work programme to increase the impact of the Trust. The successful candidate will offer the skills to meet the challenge of a role that encompasses a wide variety of work including further development of the organisation and its projects, fundraising, staff and financial management, and external relations/networking.

"Accumulation by dispossession is about plundering, robbing other people of their rights. When we start to look at what has happened to the global economy for the past thirty years, a lot of that has been going on all over the place," says David Harvey, author of The New Imperialism, in this article. "In some instances, it is taking away peoples rights to dispose of their own resources, so you will find that there is resistance to that..." Read the full interview with David Harvey on his book The New Imperialsm by clicking on the URL provided.

The following text is the prepared speech of Winnie Madikezela Mandela for her March 4 address to V103's Expo for Today's Black Woman held in Chicago, Illinois. "I feel greatly honored to have been invited to this august gathering. In his address to the 1900 Pan African Conference a prolific African American writer, scholar, and philosopher W.E.B. Du Bois declared the problem of the twentieth century 'as the problem of the colour line'. Indeed the 20th century has sharpened and deepened distinctions between the colonizers, the powerful, the wealthy, the developed and privileged on the one hand, and the colonized, powerless, poor, diseased, and the landless and disadvantaged on the other.”

A study on the accuracy of the free online resource Wikipedia by the prestigious journal Nature has been described as "fatally flawed". The report, published in December last year, compared the accuracy of online offerings from Encyclopaedia Britannica and Wikipedia. Nature found that both were about as accurate as each other on science.

A commission of inquiry has grilled Uganda's health ministers over a corruption scandal that NGOs say prevented donor money from reaching the severely sick. The commission investigating the suspension of funding worth hundreds of millions of dollars by the Global Fund for AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis has quizzed 130 Ugandan government officials and members of civil society over allegations of financial mismanagement and nepotism.

Nigeria and Russia are now pitched in an emotive diplomatic row following a resolve by the Russian government to side track the agenda of New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) from the overall programme of G8, ahead of the next G8 meeting to be held in Moscow, Sunday Tribune can report. Russia, the current chairman of G8 has tactically been distancing itself from NEPAD and has been indicating that NEPAD will not form part of issues that the G8 would deliberate upon during its next summer meeting in Moscow, a development said to have angered President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Across Europe, African football players face weekly abuse from fans chanting racial insults. In Russia, racial attitudes have extended beyond the football pitch to include violent attacks against Africans, some of which have resulted in death. With International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (http://www.un.org/depts/dhl/racial/) marked this week, Pambazuka News interviewed Nassor Said Ali, co founder and leader of the St. Petersburg African Union, which has been working to support the victims of race-based violence in Russia.

Pambazuka News: Who are the African people that live in Russia? What are the attitudes towards African people in Russia and why do these attitudes exist?

Nassor Said Ali: Most of the African population currently living in Russia is comprised of students. There are also a number of graduates who, for one reason or another have been unable to leave and fall into the trap of the Russian legal system where they face restrictions on their residential status and the inability to gain work permits. In addition, there is a small population of illegal immigrants, as well as legitimate residents. There are also children from mixed Afro-Russian families – in many cases, these children face discrimination and some are deserted in state orphanages.

African people in Russia are increasingly finding themselves living in fear of being the object of increasing racial attacks. Africans believe that these attacks are part and parcel of a prejudice towards them due to a lack of information about Africa and any culture alien to Russia. Aliou Tunkara, head of the St. Petersburg African Union, an organisation dedicated to helping Africans in Russia, argues that "Russian racism comes out of the social misconception that we are people from another planet abusing the generosity of the Russian people by turning into criminals and drug dealers."

Pambazuka News: What is St Petersburg African Union doing to combat racism and support those who are affected by it?

Nassor Said Ali: The African Union has embarked on an awareness raising campaign. After a round table session on interethnic and interracial relations, attended by St. Petersburg's city administration, migration and political authorities, as well as a number of local NGO's, specific mutual terms were reached with local law enforcement authorities. The outcome included the decision to conduct lectures and discussions concerning Africa as a continent with cultural, geographical, economic and historical diversity to be held with police academies and schools. This was done with the hope of fighting racism and xenophobia. The African Union has also been active in raising awareness of these issues in more public ways – street demonstrations and numerous media interventions.

Pambazuka News: Are local authorities active in supporting anti-racist views, or do they in fact actually contribute to the views that many people hold?

Nassor Said Ali: While the African Union has been able to collaborate with government and police departments, they have also encountered problems at this level. A sociological survey among Africans in the city found that authorities have been indifferent to racist attitudes, or are even permissive in some cases.

Indeed, some police officials have been dismissive of the cases in which African people have been attacked or killed, arguing that the victims have been connected to the "lowest of the locals," or blaming the attacks not on racism, but simply on the public drunkenness of hooligans out looking for a good time or someone to rob. There have also been allegations that the attacked Africans have been misrepresenting Russian society, and that ethnic minorities have exaggerated "the scale of race-related crimes to divert attention away from their own wrong doings," according to the head of the St. Petersburg police press office.

Pambazuka News: Are these isolated incidents, or are nationalist and racist sentiments on the rise?

Nassor Said Ali: While some officials would like to blame these incidents on drunkenness or low-level crime, it appears that racist and xenophobic crimes are in fact increasing. Extremist organisations, such as the Freedom Party, have claimed responsibility for some of these murders, asserting that their "byely patruli" (white patrol) operates in the city centre to "cleanse the city of unwanted elements where the police had failed." It is not only Africans that are targeted – a Vietnamese student was killed recently, and the local Jewish community has reported a rise in acts of vandalism. Further, human rights organisations are worried about a recent tendency among nationalist movements in assuming a major role in the opposition forces of the country, in an environment where the ruling democratic forces are losing ground.

Pambazuka News: Does the media report accurately on these incidents (ie. are the African students blamed for instigating the violence)?

Nassor Said Ali: A recent front page story from the local weekly, Novy Petersburg, branded the anti-racist campaign undertaken by the African Union as a "promotion of African culture of cannibalism, drugs and the dissemination of infectious diseases among the children." The implications of this are obviously widespread, and when the African Union entered into classes as a part of their awareness campaign they were met with both students and teachers echoing these sentiments. Further, the head of the St. Petersburg police press department admitted to lying about the extent and causes of attacks on Africans, claiming that he didn't want the media to pick up on the issue. That the media is therefore unable to report accurately is alarming. News outlets have also been accused of reporting on the incidents, but not addressing the responses of authorities, law enforcement agencies and public.

* Interview conducted by email and compiled from previous articles. Please send comments to

StreetNet International alliance of street vendors was launched in Durban, South Africa, in November 2002. Membership-based organizations (unions, co-operatives or associations) directly organizing street vendors, market vendors and/or hawkers among their members, are entitled to affiliate to StreetNet International. The aim of StreetNet is to promote the exchange of information and ideas on critical issues facing street vendors, market vendors and hawkers (i.e. mobile vendors) and on practical organizing and advocacy strategies.

The Program awards approximately fifteen fellowships each year to exceptional social entrepreneurs and technology professionals from around the world. Successful candidates have innovative ideas and are passionate about implementing a project to empower individuals and communities in the developing world.