The Ghanaian Chief Justice has sent out a strong warning to corrupt officials in the judiciary, describing the problem of corruption as "disturbing" and warning that those caught will be removed from the service.

A group of MPS have condemned violence that left one person dead when President Moi and his preferred heir Uhuru Kenyatta visited Kakamega to address a public rally.

An expanding economy has helped lower Tanzania's poverty level slightly, but more than a third of the people still live below the poverty line and new data shows a growing rural-urban poverty gap.

Human activities are contributing to global climate change, especially through the emission of greenhouse gas (GHG). In order to address this environmental challenge, the international community is attempting to slow the emissions growth and to adapt to this new situation. The Kyoto Protocol outlines the role that both developed and developing countries should play in the climate change response. One of the conclusions of a paper by the OECD looking at this process is that more commitment should be put in energy, transport and natural resource management in order to realise greenhouse gas reductions at sustainable costs.

A publication authored by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and International Development Association admits that the growth and export performance of the 24 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) has reduced in the last two years, blaming a decrease in commodity prices and the global economic slowdown. Twenty of the countries have worsened their debt sustainability because of lower exports, says the publication.

The international donor and creditor communities have a duty to ensure that the anti-poor lending and borrowing patterns of the past are not repeated, says a joint submission to the World Bank and IMF review of HIPC and debt sustainability by the Catholic Fund for Overseas Development (CAFOD). Both debtors and creditors need to begin analytical work to judge the desirable blend of grants and concessional finance to enable low-income countries to manage their future debt burdens.

Former Grain Marketing Board chief executive Martin Muchero has been sentenced to 150 hours of community service while the former finance manager Dorothy Chasakara will serve a total of 550 hours of community service for their corrupt dealings. Muchero was on Wednesday found guilty on one count of corruption involving a $59 000 deal, while Chasakara was convicted of the same count plus a charge involving the purchase of 21 vehicles for more than $1,6 million.

The Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) has received $300 million in foreign assistance to further its work, Chairman of the Commission, Justice Mustapha Adebayo Akanbi, has said.

The International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES) is seeking a skilled field intern who will provide support to the IFES field offices in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The position will last for one semester or over the course of one summer with a minimum of thirteen weeks spent in the DRC.

The Chief Justice, Benjamin Odoki, has conceded that corruption exists in the Judiciary but said the problem was not as massive as portrayed.

The Sustainability Institute is an international living and learning centre located outside the South African university town of Stellenbosch. In collaboration with the School of Public Management and Planning from the Stellenbosch University, the Sustainability Institute is now offering a flexible-study Masters programme in the Practice of Sustainable Development (Mphil. Development Planning). With modules running intermittently throughout the year, this course is open not only to those with a town planning background, but also from a range of allied disciplines. Interested potential students from within South Africa and abroad.

The chairman of Mozambique's Cashew Industry Association, Kekobad Patel, told AIM on Tuesday that the World Bank ought to support the Mozambican government in attempts to rescue the cashew processing industry.

Boldly proclaiming a decisive and historic battle against corruption, the Zambian government is locked in a bitter struggle with most of the Cabinet it replaced in January.
However, the way the government is going about its anti-corruption campaign has raised questions of whether it is not an old-fashioned power struggle instead.

I am very pleased with this service. I work for the Canadian International
Development Agency (CIDA) on Guinea and Sierra Leone and always closely monitor your publication for news and reports important to the region.

Congratulations on the phenomenal growth, but continuing quality of this e-newsletter. Our program participants, who are development workers from around the world, appreciate
your work greatly.

The rights of people living with HIV/AIDS to participate in the voting process should be upheld, extended and preserved, with reasonable accommodations made in the voting process including voting programmes, mobile voting facilites, provisions for absentee voting, early voting and proxy or mail voting. This forms part of a six-part plan on how enhanced democratic processes can make a difference in fighting the HIV/AIDS pandemic, released by the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa.

Western governments, analysts and pundits are currently displaying the usual pre-performance nerves we have seen so often before the onset of the ‘show’ in the ‘theatre’ of war. Advisers, analysts and markets are engaged in a daily temperature-taking of the situation: of the Bush administration’s propaganda victories and losses; of the true nature of Saddam’s arsenal; to the effects of the military build up on oil prices and equity markets – as the increasingly fragile Western capitalist system wonders whether its future is now dependent on the emergent US war economy, and the profits it may make from “regime change” in the Middle East; or conversely, whether such action would in fact precipitate widespread political and economic chaos.

With this propaganda war have come some momentous and deeply disturbing developments. In an attempt to justify the pursuit of “regime change” in Iraq, the Bush administration has unilaterally reversed decades of US foreign policy by announcing that from now on, the Americans are fully justified in pursuing pre-emptive strikes on states (or groups) they consider may pose a threat to US interests. The specific threat posed by Iraq has been touted by the publication of the UK government’s much vaunted intelligence “dossier” purporting to prove just how extensive Saddam’s military capacities really are, and intense negotiations are currently underway at the UN to get backing for Bush’s war aims in the event of Iraq failing to comply with the re-admission of weapons inspectors. UN capitulation is absolutely vital for Bush, since not only does it give any action in Iraq the veneer of legality, it could also act as a precedent in effectively legalising the policy of pre-emptive strikes itself. Yet, Iraq’s military capacity is itself the subject of debate: an alternative report circulated among UK Labour MPs for example, has stated that Saddam’s military capacity was all but annihilated by the Gulf War and subsequent inspections teams, and even the UK government dossier concedes Iraq is 5 years from producing nuclear weapons. Moreover, as many commentators have pointed out, even if Iraq does have an extensive military capability, this does not in itself prove any hostile intention – especially to the US, nor does it explain why Iraq should be attacked for having weapons of mass destruction (WMD), when countries such as Israel – or indeed the US - are not. Thus the case for a pre-emptive strike on Iraq has not been made, and if it accedes to the demands of the Bush administration, the UN will effectively concede a fundamental principle of international law. If the UN refuses to back military action as a “last resort” – which is possible, if unlikely - Bush will not have even the trappings of legitimacy to justify invasion. The threat of military action has already provoked widespread protests across the world; if undertaken unilaterally, such opposition, at home and abroad, is likely to increase massively.

During the Annual Meetings of the World Bank and IMF in Washington on September 28th and 29th 2002, creditor countries committed themselves to providing the $1bn of additional debt relief that had been announced during the G8 meeting in Kananskis. As a result, World Bank President James Wolfensohn has announced that he is now 'sleeping well at night' over the HIPC initiative. However, analysis by Jubilee Research has shown that even the $1bn additional debt relief committed will not be enough to bring down countries debt levels to the 150% debt-to-export target which is considered a 'sustainable' level of debt under the HIPC initiative.

Amnesty International has strongly condemned state-sponsored violence , torture, arrests and intimidation of opposition cadidates and supporters during country-wide local council elections held on 28 and 29 September. "Once again, government authorities have failed to ensure that elections take place in a climate free from harassment and intimidation. All allegations of human rights violations, including torture, against opposition Movement for Democratic change (MDC) officials and supporters during the local elections must be effectively investigated," Amnesty International said.

Two years ago, African leaders pledged to drop import taxes on treated mosquito nets in an attempt to reduce the continents' enormous malaria epidemic. On the second anniversary of their meeting, fewer than half have kept that promise.