This infographic briefly defines what a conflict mineral is and follows up with a map that shows worldwide production of each mineral. We have also included a graphical representation of the estimated amount of funds that are going to the armed conflict within the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

This page has live updates of the political posturings and the response of the street, as protesters organise marches to voice their demands to MPs, as Egypt's newly elected People's Assembly opens for the first time since Hosni Mubarak was toppled.

Allegations of sabotage, mounting debt and widespread financial mismanagement….The debacle in Limpopo has spewed out a dangerous brew of bad money and political in-fighting, writes Kim Cloete in Business Day. The financial mismanagement may have been rotten to the core, but it’s the timing of the intervention that has riled Limpopo’s ANC-run administration. National Treasury says it had warned the Limpopo Treasury throughout last year that it would run out of funds if it was going to continue with its rampant spending. Eventually the situation reached a head in November when it became clear that the province was bankrupt.

South Africa’s economic difficulties are placing Lesotho’s economy at a crossroads, as the government struggles to push big rocks up the mountain to balance the national budget. Lesotho is wrestling with a 30 per cent decline in domestic revenues and a 15 per cent budget deficit in the 2011/12 financial year. The government expects to fund the gap with loans from international financial institutions and foreign aid.

Islamist militants have launched a suicide truck bomb attack on an Ethiopian military base in central Somalia, witnesses say. Al-Shabab says it killed 10 Ethiopian soldiers in the attack in the town of Beledweyne but this has not been confirmed. Ethiopian forces seized Beledweyne from al-Shabab earlier this month.

“The liberation of the oppressed people cannot come as a result of magical practices, nor of a natural shock, nor of a friendly understanding”. Those were the powerful words of Frantz Fanon in his masterpiece “The Wretched of the Earth”. Fanon spoke of decolonisation as a violent process to create new men and to overthrow a system that exploits the native, dehumanises him and plunders his resources. Talk by Dr Leo Zeilig: Institute of Commonwealth Studies, 28 January at 15:00. Goodenough College, Mecklenburgh Square, London WC1N 2AB

A court in Algeria has sentenced a fugitve leader of al-Qaeda's north African wing and three of his followers to death for attacks against the military. The sentence against Mokhtar Belmokhtar and the three others was handed down in absentia on Sunday night after a day-long trial in Algiers.

STOP PRESS: Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta has 'stepped aside' as finance minister, as well as head of the civil service Francis Muthaura.

'On the basis of the President's statement that he would act once the charges are confirmed, and not withstanding the said individuals right to appeal and presumption of innocence until proven guilty, we the undersigned people of Kenya exercising our sovereignty as expressed below under Chapter One and Chapter Four (Bill of Rights) of the Constitution of Kenya 2012 call upon the President to move with speed and honour his word and pledge to Kenyans by compelling Amb. Francis Kirimi Muthaura, Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta and William Samoei Ruto to step down from the public offices they currently occupy.

The President should also state categorically that the said individuals are not fit to hold public office in Kenya unless and if when the very serious charges against them are dismissed. We feel that the three individuals can no longer inspire confidence from the majority of Kenyans in exercise of their official duties and that their personal activities will indeed interfere with the discharge of their duties in service of the people of Kenya.'

View the rest of the statement and sign the petition through the link provided.

Ugandan police clashed with opposition supporters in Kampala Tuesday 24 January after security forces tried to detain opposition leader Kizza Besigye following a protest rally over rising living costs. Police fired tear gas at protesters after they started throwing stones following an unsuccessful attempt by a plainclothed security agent to drag Besigye into a waiting van, an AFP photographer at the scene said.

The Permanent Representatives Committee (PRC) of the African Union has called for monitoring of human rights in occupied Western Sahara, during its 23rd ordinary session in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The PRC asked the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights to provide constant information on the developments taking place in occupied Western Sahara.

The IMF said on Tuesday a $32 billion accounting discrepancy in Angola's state funds was linked to 'quasi-fiscal operations' by state oil firm Sonangol done on the government's behalf, but not recorded in official budget accounts. 'Preliminary data indicate that quasi-fiscal operations undertaken by the state oil company on behalf of the government, financed out of oil revenues but not recorded in the budgetary accounts, can explain a large part of the discrepancy,' the IMF said in a statement.

The Ethiopian government under its villagization' program is forcibly relocating approximately 70,000 indigenous people from the western Gambella region to new villages that lack adequate food, farmland, healthcare, and educational facilities, Human Rights Watch said in a new report. State security forces have repeatedly threatened, assaulted, and arbitrarily arrested villagers who resist the transfers.

Population growth and rising consumption by a minority of people around the world are fuelling global land acquisitions and Africa is a 'prime target', says the International Land Coalition. 'The best land is often being targeted for acquisition. It is often irrigable, with proximity to infrastructure, making conflict with existing land users more likely,' says a 14 December 2011 report. Africa accounts for 134 million hectares of reported land deals. Worldwide, between 2000 and 2010, deals under consideration or negotiation amounted to 203 million hectares, the Coalition says.

Two Senegalese journalists with the private daily Le Quotidien have been handed suspended prison sentences in a criminal libel case over their coverage of an armed insurgency in a separatist province, according to the New York-based media watchdog, Committee to Protect Journalists(CPJ). A statement from CPJ said a magistrate in a criminal court in the capital, Dakar, handed Le Quotidien editor Mamadou Biaye and reporter Mamadou Ticko Diatta suspended three-month prison terms.

Gambian President Yahya Jammeh has been sworn in for a fourth term and says he will crack the whip on laziness and corruption as he bids to turn Africa's smallest mainland country into an economic powerhouse. Jammeh, who came to power in a coup in 1994 aged 29, also said his government would not tolerate any terrorist or racist acts. 'I will be more dangerous in the next five years than when I was, even in uniform, because people have to change their attitude to work,' he earlier said on state TV Wednesday, promising that people would see 'a different Yahya Jammeh'.

In this week's edition of the Emerging Powers News Round-Up, read a comprehensive list of news stories and opinion pieces related to China, India and other emerging powers...

In this episode, Africa Today interviews Connie Fields and Gregory Scharpen of Clarity Films on their film 'Have You Heard From Johannesburg', the epic story of the global anti-apartheid movement and also speaks with Christine Nyanda ChaCha, the executive director and founder of African Immigrants Social and Cultural Services.

As thousands of Israelis have been protesting racism directed at Ethiopian Israelis recently, a new recording revealed Wednesday an Israeli school bus driver in Jerusalem spewing racist slurs at schoolgirls of Ethiopian origin. 'People tell you that you smell bad, deal with it. Put on deodorant every day. You’ll smell better,' the driver was heard saying in the recording. 'You need to respect us. We were living here before you, our lives are much more modern.'

There is strong evidence that NATO carried out war crimes in its eight-month war for regime-change in Libya, according to a report released Thursday by Middle East human rights groups. The report is based upon a fact-finding mission to Libya conducted by the Arab Organization for Human Rights, together with the Palestinian Center for Human Rights and the International Legal Assistance Consortium. The investigators conducted extensive interviews with victims of war crimes as well as witnesses and Libyan officials. The mission carried out on-site field investigations in and around Tripoli, Zawiya, Sibrata, Khoms, Zliten, Misrata, Tawergha and Sirte.

The death toll from co-ordinated bombings and gunfire in the northern Nigerian city of Kano has risen to at least 178, medical sources said, making this the deadliest attack claimed by the radical Islamist group Boko Haram. Gunfire continued to echo through some areas of Kano on Saturday, despite a strict curfew imposed on Friday night which will remain in place until further notice, local officials said.