President Levy Mwanawasa has called on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) not to force Zambia to complete the privatisation of key public firms, the state-run Times of Zambia reported on Tuesday.

Malawi on Wednesday confirmed the arrest of two senior government officials accused of obstructing investigations into the sale of the country's strategic maize reserves which added to the country's food crisis.

We are so proud of your statements on behalf of PLWHA in Africa. We saw you on television before the G8 meeting in Canada last summer and lately we heard you on the BBC. We live in Nigeria but our roots are in Canada (Toronto). We belong to the Congregation of Our Lady's Missionaries but don't let that throw you. We have been working since 1991 in the rural part of Benue State, Nigeria, setting up programs for people infected with HIV.

You met some of our people when you visited Benue State in 2002 or late 2001. They met you on the road coming from Alaide to Government House and you invited them back to Government House for a discussion.

We encourage you to continue to fight for antiretroviral drugs for those infected although I suspect you need no encouragement. You give hope to people like us and to the Nigerians we work with in our programs. You are so articulate, passionate and sincere in your presentations. I applaud you whenever I hear you speak. You have unique and wonderful gifts, Stephen. Thank you for using them for Africa, the forgotten continent.

Suzanne Marshall, Nigeria (reposted from AF-AIDS: [email]af-aids@healthdev.net)

The fraud and corruption trial of former ANC chief whip Tony Yengeni and businessman Michael Woerfel appears set to get under way. A possible settlement deal between Yengeni and the state has not materialised.

It is a great honour for us to take the field today to play for Zimbabwe in the World Cup. We feel privileged and proud to have been able to represent our country. We are however deeply distressed about what is taking place in Zimbabwe in the midst of the World Cup and do not feel that we can take the field without indicating our feelings in a dignified manner and in keeping with the spirit of cricket. We cannot in good conscience take to the field and ignore the fact that millions of our compatriots are starving, unemployed and oppressed. We are aware that hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans may even die in the coming months through a combination of starvation, poverty and Aids. We are aware that many people have been unjustly imprisoned and tortured simply for expressing their opinions about what is happening in the country. We have heard a torrent of racist hate speech directed at minority groups. We are aware that thousands of Zimbabweans are routinely denied their right to freedom of expression.

This unique two-week course aims to standardise, consolidate and strengthen the institution of election observation in Africa. Through this we attempt to contribute to a credible and genuine assessment of elections in Africa. The course will also deal with problematic issues such as cultural sensitivities on the continent. We are confident that this course will contribute to a culture where aspects such as democracy, civil society and human rights and a respect thereof form the basis of African societies.

Patrick Bond is evidently a very angry man, but uncontrolled anger makes bad journalism and can harm the cause he is so passionate about (Pambazuka News 98). By airing all sorts of negative judgments and comments, many of them personal, he has made his article read like a tirade that alienates most of whom he hopes to appeal to. Two kinds of people enjoy a tirade: one is the few who are as passionately attached to the rager's cause and who also share the rager's particular set of antipathies and prejudices. This is a small audience, and one which does not need winning over. The other kind of people get fun out of witnessing the rager rapidly digging his own grave and making a fool of himself, and is sure to include all those he evidently considers as enemies. The more merciful readers feel embarrassed and simply stop reading. I presume Patrick wants to be read, to win others to support his cause, and not to be enjoyed as a foolish spectacle.

Better then to let facts speak for themselves (and be careful not to select facts to suit your cause: it may work in the short term, with the uninformed reader, but in the long term harms your credibility); and distinguish between facts, opinions, judgments, speculations and assumptions about people's motives (the last three belong to gossip not journalism).

There is more than enough objective evidence that Africa is being cheated left right and centre; our own hearts tell us how to react to these abuses, without the need to be lectured to about what our response should be. And it is counterproductive to resort to unethical rhetoric, which does no credit to the writer or to the publication which agrees to print his words.

Ben Kobus

Political analysts have long believed that sustaining democratic government in a poor society is harder than in a relatively wealthy one. This is a sobering thought for all those committed to democracy in Africa. Precisely why poverty undermines democracy, however, is much less clear. Perhaps poor people have far less time to devote to political participation. Or, given the imperative to satisfy basic survival, people may sacrifice "higher order" needs like self-government, freedom and equality, says an Afrobarometer Briefing Paper.

There was an "overall sense" from civil society that Nepad had gone for what was politically winnable in current terms, according to Neville Gabriel, a senior official within the Justice and Peace department of the Southern African Catholic Bishop's Conference, who was speaking at a Southern African Regional Poverty Network panel discussion on the decision by the UN General Assembly to make Nepad the framework for its relations with Africa. Gabriel said civil society would like to see a far more direct approach by Nepad to poverty reduction in Africa, noting that Nepad could only be seen to achieve its goals if African communities believed that it was delivering effectively at the community level. Other civil society concerns included debt cancellation and the extent of Africa's integration into the global economic order.

While many African countries have made impressive strides in strengthening democracy and human rights within their own borders, there remains a serious gap in their support of democracy as a part of their foreign policy. This is the conclusion of Defending Democracy: A Global Survey of Foreign Policy Trends 1992-2002, recently published by the Democracy Coalition Project, a research and advocacy nongovernmental organisation involved in democracy promotion around the world. In addition to documenting an increase in support for democratic norms and processes internally, the survey established an upward trend in African countries' willingness to back international efforts that promote such institutions. However, serious problems remain. Recent developments such as those surrounding the flawed elections in Zimbabwe demonstrate enduring tensions between democracy promotion and the long-standing principles of non-intervention and solidarity that have traditionally governed Africa's interstate relations.

Chief Secretary Marten Lumbanga has claimed it is untrue that corruption was on the increase. Speaking at the closing of a one-day conference on 'Good Governance' at the Courtyard Hotel, Dar es Salaam, he said the corruption index in Tanzania had fallen from 81 points to 71, according to Transparency International.

Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Justice Mustapha Akanbi, has said he has nothing to lose by giving up his chairmanship of the Commission. This follows a proposed ammendment to the ICPC Act by federal legislators.

As years of conflict and civil unrest continue to weaken the health sector in West Africa, the World Health Organisation has called for immediate donor support in order to avoid a total break down of the region's systems.

A military observer team should be deployed in Mambasa, near the Ituri river in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a United Nations-led inter-agency rapid assessment mission organised by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has recommended.

In the last five years, governance concerns have begun to move up the agenda in development. The multilaterals were among the last to change. What do we mean by governance? In simple terms, governance means openness, participation, accountability, help for the poor and achieving the common good. In Zambia, governance concerns have at various times in the past led to the withholding of bilateral support and most recently has led to debate over Zambia's agreement with the IMF.

As Nigeria prepares for the 2003 general elections, concerns for the safety and security of the population have increased, says the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) in its position paper for the fifty-ninth session of the UN Commission on Human Rights. "Given the experience of Nigeria's electoral history, the elections in 2003 also pose a heightened threat of outbreaks of inter-communal and religious violence as different political groups jostle for electoral advantage," said OMCT. The position paper - which deals with themes of the right to reparation; impunity; human rights defenders; violence against women and children; and economic, social and cultural rights - also contains a statement on the human rights situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Nigeria's national assembly, long seen as one of the main centres of graft in a notoriously corrupt polity, is expected to begin within weeks public hearings on a document that will cause it great embarrassment. A 300-page annual report on government spending submitted last month by Vincent Azie, the country's auditor-general, reads like an extended charge sheet against parliament, the president's office, government ministries and the judiciary.

In Luanda there are two ways of getting high on Angola's wealth. You can become an oil executive and work from a penthouse office on Lenin Avenue, gazing beyond the shattered skyline out to sea. Or you can join the street children downtown who douse rags in petrol and sniff themselves into a chemical haze before competing with dogs to scavenge from mounds of rubbish. The two worlds have long co-existed in the capital but the approaching first anniversary of peace in a country that suffered three decades of war raises a crucial question: will ordinary Angolans benefit? No other country is so simultaneously rich and poor.

A row over bribery allegations took the shine off shareholder approval for the Amec board to proceed with its full takeover of French construction company SPIE this week. A legal case involving SPIE Batignolles and its involvement in a controversial dam known as the Lesotho Highlands Water Project was adjourned on Monday until October in an African court.

At a United Nations Environment Program Governing Council meeting, Environmental Ministers are expected to agree on taking immediate actions and consider further measures - including an international treaty - to address the significant adverse impacts of global mercury.