The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by anti-press violence by supporters of Julius Malema, youth leader of South Africa's ruling African National Congress, and is relieved that the party leader has urged restraint. Malema supporters protesting their leader's disciplinary hearing at ANC headquarters in Johannesburg hurled bottles, stones, and bricks at police and reporters. At least nine journalists were injured.

Human rights advocates watching Gambia are worried that abuses against perceived dissenters will rise as the November presidential election nears, killing any chance of a free and fair poll. Already the official campaign period - the only time opposition parties are given access to the media and allowed to actively campaign - has been shrunk to 11 days from four weeks, sparking concern among political leaders.

With rising population growth and changes in the earth's climate putting stress on the consumable 1% of the planet's water, the global water crisis risks becoming a source of cross-border conflict. Sub-Saharan Africa is especially vulnerable given its dry climate, which is exacerbated by underdevelopment and mismanagement of water resources. In 2000, countries in Africa and in other regions set targets to halve by 2015 the number of people without access to these basic services. Some of them may meet these targets.

ARTICLE 19 is seeking to engage a Legal Consultant, fluent in both English and Arabic, who will be responsible for ensuring it is able to play an enhanced role in promoting the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of information by developing an enabling legal and policy environment in the MENA region.

In Human Rights Watch’s newest report, 'Corruption on Trial? The Record of Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,' this highly credible NGO takes a break from its more usual investigations into conflict and violence to assess the successes and failures of Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) — the agency tasked to investigate and prosecute financial crimes ranging from advanced fee fraud, more commonly known as '419' scams, to money laundering to government corruption.

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By focusing during 19 days on the prevention of diverse types of abuse and violence against children and youth, the 19 Days of Activism for Prevention campaign aims to continue to bring to light the alarming problem, its multifaceted aspects, and the need to generate sufficient grass-roots interest and government and public support for better prevention measures.

The Government of Somaliland announced that it will expel about 100,000 illegal immigrants from the country. The government set one month for illegal immigrants to leave Somaliland, or face punishment, warning Somalilanders found hiding illegal immigrants will also be subject to punishment. The Government plans to repatriate about 80,000 – 90,000 illegal immigrants mainly Ethiopians in one month.

Rising demand for the dominant form of renewable energy worldwide – wood – could drive yet more acquisitions of land in developing countries where food insecurity is rising and land rights are weak, say researchers at the International Institute for Environment and Development. In a briefing paper published August 30, they warn that this new trend needs greater public scrutiny and debate.

Ethiopia has expelled a delegation of international rights group, the Amnesty International, and detained two opposition party leaders. Amnesty said its delegation was on an official visit to the Horn of Africa country. The opposition leaders were arrested on the back of individual meeting with the expelled delegation, a statement issued by Amnesty said. 'We are extremely concerned that the arrests of the two men occurred within days of talking with our delegates. Although the government denies it, we are worried that their arrests are not a coincidence,' said Michelle Kagari, deputy programmes director for Africa.

Kenya's anti-corruption chief and his deputies have been given seven days to leave office after lawmakers adopted legislation establishing a revamped anti-graft watchdog enshrined under the new constitution.

According to the novelist Helon Habila, editor of Granta’s forthcoming Book of African Short Stories, to put together a collection representing every African language, people and nation is impossible. Instead, Habila has compiled Granta’s new collection to showcase what he sees as a ‘new generation’ of emerging African short story writers.

The recent Paris meet was a grim victory celebration by the NATO powers who wanted non-European poodles on the bandwagon, writes M.K. Bhadrakumar.

In response to reports that British scientists are about to test the hardware needed to put sulphur particles in the stratosphere as a climate technofix, international technology watchdog ETC Group is calling on the UK government to halt the controversial test and respect UN processes underway to discuss these issues.

This schematic diagram based on figures from On Device Research shows that for African internet users, well over 50% have mobile internet as the sole access method. In contrast, only 20% of UK mobile internet browsers never or infrequently (once a month or less) use the desktop internet. Most mobile internet users in Africa are aged between 13 and 34 (91%) and male (83%), the typical early adopter profile. Many are in school or university, showing the need for a level of education.

South Africa is one of Africa's most liberal outposts, while Kenya has a reputation for conservatism. But no society is static, least of all in Africa. And the recent appointment processes around new chief justices in these two regional powerhouses demonstrates just how important – and potentially vulnerable – the democratic rule of law is, in places that have long histories of human rights abuse, and where inevitable social change threatens age-old customs. An opinion piece by Mark Gevisser for The Guardian.

South Africa's official opposition party the Democratic Alliance (DA) has launched a website developed to track the opportunity cost of not implementing the youth wage subsidy policy announced by President Jacob Zuma in his February 2010 State of the Nation Address. Nobody disputes that South Africa has a crisis of youth unemployment. The rate of joblessness in the country is amongst the highest in the world, and 71% of the unemployed are under the age of 34.

Though much of the attention on land grabs in Africa has focused on Asian and Middle Eastern buyers, the Oakland Institute has been revealing that U.S.-based institutions are active as well. This is particularly true of South Sudan, where 'US investors are intimately involved' in land dealing.

The Karonga Natural Resources Justice Committee (KANRJC) has petitioned the government of Malawi for access to information that would allow them to monitor effectively mining activities to ensure compliance of labour standards and respect of people's rights.

The Mobile Media Toolkit is a project of MobileActive.org, a global network of people using mobile technology for social impact. The Secure section of the Mobile Media Toolkit also features another project from MobileActive.org called SaferMobile, which helps activists, human rights defenders, and journalists assess the mobile communications risks that they are facing, and then use appropriate mitigation techniques to increase their ability to organize, report, and work more safely.