The International Criminal Court judge who declined to issue summonses to six Kenyans suspected of being behind the post-election violence says the cases should be dealt with locally. In his dissenting opinion published on Tuesday (15 March) night, Judge Hans-Peter Kaul said that Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo had not convinced him that the crimes committed in Kenya meet the threshold of crimes against humanity.

A community-based organisation in the Kenyan slum area of Kibera set out to clean up garbage and deal with waste water; Ushiriki Wa Safi ended up creating a community cooker that turns waste into an energy source.

The UN estimates that some 60,000 people could come into Niger from Libya in the coming weeks. As of 10 March, 2,205 had arrived - 1,865 of them Nigeriens and the rest from other West African countries - according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

carries an interview with the wife of one of the activists currently jailed in Zimbabwe and awaiting a bail hearing on Wednesday 16 March. In the interview, she talks about the impact of her husband's detention on her life. 'You know, you feel helpless because you don’t [know] who to approach or where to go for help. All you can do is wait at central police where no one tells anything. At the end of the day you don’t really feel safe.'

Many of Uganda's most science-supportive parliamentarians lost their positions in last month's general election (18 February). Ten MPs, all scientists by training, lost their seats. They had been instrumental in influencing policy and financial appropriations for scientific research.

'Although the Internet is certainly used by dissidents, it is also used by the authorities to relay regime propaganda and enforce a police state,' says this report from Reporters Without Borders on the use of Twitter and Facebook in recent popular uprisings. 'The Internet remains above all a tool used for the better or the worse. In the most closed countries, it creates a space of freedom which would not otherwise exist. Its potential to disseminate news irritates dictators and eludes traditional censorship methods.'

Eight South Africans and 10 Mozambicans, aged between 18 to 25, gathered in Maputo in mid-December to give feedback on a pilot exchange programme of volunteers between the two countries. The Southern Africa Trust and AFS Interculture South Africa established SayXchange in response to the 2008 xenophobic violence in South Africa in an attempt to build regional integration and nurture future leaders. The volunteers, who worked with several NGOs during their stay, lived with host families for five months.

From a distance, the mud houses in the village of Gwélékoro appear to sit in the middle of the fields, which are bare in this dry season. Farmers gathered their harvests last November. Now they patiently wait for the next rains, expected between June and July. But despite the apparent tranquility, farmers are worried. Life is difficult this year in this village 60 kilometres south of Bamako, the capital of Mali. Not only was the harvest poor, but cereal prices have jumped significantly, reports Farm Radio Weekly.

Visit this multimedia page on for the latest videos on the situation in Libya.

Recently WikiLeaks revealed that Swaziland had tried to acquire arms from the UK. It was reported by The Guardian - and later local newspapers - that Britain had blocked a $60 million sale of helicopters, armoured cars and machine guns to Swaziland, fearing the weapons could end up in Iran, at least according to US diplomatic cables.

Some women's rights groups have expressed their disappointment at the recent national constitutional review conference organised by the Constitution Review Commission in Accra recently. The women were stunned that all the 25 areas which formed the subject matter for the conference did not feature any gender concerns. They claimed they were at the conference in their numbers to support the cause of women but to their amazement none of the concerns raised by them were mentioned.

Despite formal recognition of domestic workers' rights in South Africa, they still face a struggle for fair treatment. In June this year, the second and final reading of an International Labour Organisation Convention on the rights of domestic workers will take place. If it is adopted, it would strengthen legal protection for millions of the most vulnerable workers worldwide.

The Kenyatta International Conference Centre resembled one big nursery with parents and their crying babies. 'We’ve started the global rollout of these (pneumonia) vaccines that will save thousands of children’s lives. It is a very exciting day,' said Helen Evans, interim CEO of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI). The vaccine, already available in various private hospitals, has remained out of reach for many children. A full dose costs about 188 dollars, which for the many Kenyans living on less than a dollar a day is too expensive.

Organisation errors by the protest movement and clever manoeuvres by the government are strongly challenging the pro-democracy protests in Algeria. It is unsure when new protests will be held. In February, a newly formed National Coordination for Change and Democracy (CNCD) took charge of the protest movement, strongly inspired by the successes of protesters in Tunisia and Egypt. One month later, the CNCD shows strong signs of weakness and fragmentation and is unable to gather large crowds to what was supposed to become weekly, or even daily, mass protests.

Libyan security forces have launched a wave of 'arbitary arrests and forced disappearances' in the capital to stamp out protests against Muammar Gaddafi's rule, Human Rights Watch has said. The New York-based group said it compiled evidence from Tripoli residents of scores of people being detained if they helped organise or took part in anti-government protests, or if they were suspected of speaking to foreign media.

Religious practices, cultural beliefs and stigmatisation by the general population hamper access to health care and HIV/Aids prevention for Malian Men who have Sex with other Men (MSM) and force them into bisexuality or underground sexual practices that put them at high risk of Sexually Transmitted and HIV infections, says Dr Dembelé Bintou Keita, Director of ARCAD/SIDA, an HIV/Aids organisation that also provides health care for MSM in Mali.

The Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation has just published its latest 'Development Dialogue' (no. 55/March 2011) on 'Dealing with crimes against humanity'. It is the third volume in a series with a thematic
focus on genocide and mass violence. Its contributions deal among others with the jurisdiction of the Rwanda tribunal, with sexual violence, the Responsibility to Protect and the Crimes Against
Humanity Initiative. The volume is freely accessible through the weblink provided.

This article from Think Africa Press examines the human rights situation in Somaliland. 'If we compare the brutal, systematic repression that characterises governance in Ethiopia and Eritrea, then yes, Somaliland’s government respects the human rights of its citizens. But, if we try to assess the situation objectively Somaliland’s human rights’ gains are both limited and fragile.'

Benin’s media regulatory body, the Higher Authority for Audiovisual Communication (HAAC) on 10 March suspended, for a week, nine privately-owned newspapers in the country over false and abusive publications. The newspapers have been barred from publishing since 14 March.They are, however, expected back on the newsstands on 20 March.

President Rupiah Banda has cautioned Zambians to refrain from conducting parallel vote tabulation (PVT) in elections due later this year. Zambia’s main opposition party – the Patriotic Front (PF), other opposition parties, and influential civil society groups are planning to conduct PVT to counter-check the results. The Banda-administration reacted angrily and threatened to file a complaint against US Ambassador to Zambia Mark Storella after the envoy endorsed the PVT system.