Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika has officially handed over the chairmanship of the African Union to his Equatorial Guinea colleague Theodore Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. As President Obiang takes over, many must be wondering the wisdom of the African leaders in their selection of the boss of the continental body.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga has disowned the shuttle diplomacy spearheaded by Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka to seek the support of African Union to defer Kenya’s case at the International Criminal Court. Mr Odinga, at a news conference in Nairobi, said what Cabinet had agreed on was the referral of the cases involving the masterminds of the post-election violence suspects to the International Criminal Court and not to defer them.

The protest movement in Egypt has mobilised the young and the middle classes using the Internet and social networks in a challenge to the authorities that has seen both Twitter and Swedish video-streaming site Bambuser blocked. Mobile phones too were unable to get a signal on Tuesday in Tahrir Square in the centre of the capital Cairo, which has been a rallying point for thousands of protesters. Pro-democracy activists countered on Wednesday by disseminating technical advice to overcome these obstacles to enable the mobilisation to continue.

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The United Nations and the African Union will hold a high-level meeting in a few days to review efforts to achieve peace, security and reconciliation in strife-torn Somalia, which has been suffering through two decades of conflict and numerous humanitarian challenges. The meeting will be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on the sidelines of the African Union Summit.

Consultations on the post-transitional government process in Somalia have started, and will involve all stakeholders and the international community, the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General to Somalia said. 'There was unanimous agreement, both inside and outside Somalia, that the transitional period has to end in August as envisaged under the Djibouti Peace Agreement,' Augustine Mahiga told a news conference in Nairobi. 'In the meantime, consultations are under way to develop a consensus on how to end the transition and on the nature of post-transition political arrangements.'

Alarmed by the increase in piracy, the United Nations has proposed the establishment - for a transitional period - of a Somali extra-territorial jurisdiction court in the Tanzanian city of Arusha to deal just with piracy cases. Jack Lang, the Special Adviser on Legal Issues related to Piracy, told reporters the estimated costs of setting up a court would be around 25 million dollars. This, he pointed out, was 'a relatively modest expense compared to the estimated seven billion dollars' that is the current cost of piracy, including the multi-million-dollar ransoms extracted by pirates in the high seas.

Not only do journalists accept bribes and media houses accept paid material disguised as news stories, but all too often, reporters and editors are the instigators, extorting money either for publishing favorable stories–or for not publishing damaging ones. With all the organised efforts to support media development and defend press freedom around the world, there has been remarkably little done in any concerted way to reduce the problem of corrupt journalism, says this report.

An article from the International Journal of Refugee Law argues that advocacy for a new treaty to address climate change-related movement is presently misplaced for a number of reasons. It queries the utility – and, importantly, the policy consequences – of pinning ‘solutions’ to climate change-related displacement on a multilateral instrument, in light of the likely nature of movement, the desires of communities affected by it, and the fact that a treaty will not, without wide ratification and implementation, ‘solve’ the humanitarian issue.

In the State of the Union speech, Barack Obama did get applause for saying that the US stands with the people of Tunisia. Now, he didn’t mention the two decades of support the US had given the dictatorship, notes this article from Alternet. The President did not have anything to say about Egypt - where thousands of people, inspired by Tunisia, were taking to the streets to protest their own repressive government - another one the US has backed for years. Secretary of State Clinton’s official word is that the Egyptian government was 'stable'.

The Revenue Watch Institute (RWI) is a non-profit policy institute and grant-making organization that promotes the transparent, accountable and effective management of oil, gas, and mineral resources for the public good. RWI provides expertise, capacity building and funding to help countries maximize the long-term economic benefit of their natural riches.

A new set of research studies – available now on the International Land Coalition (ILC) website – explores the growing wave of large-scale international and domestic land acquisitions and the factors that are driving demand for investments in land. The studies examine how changes in demand for food, energy and natural resources, along with liberalisation of trade regimes, are making the competition for land increasingly global and unequal.

Oxford University’s Master's programme in International Human Rights Law is offered jointly by the Department for Continuing Education and the Faculty of Law. It is conducted on a part-time basis over 22 months. It involves two periods of distance learning via the internet as well as two summer sessions held at New College, Oxford. The degree programme is designed in particular for lawyers and other human rights advocates who wish to pursue advanced studies in international human rights law but may need to do so alongside work or family responsibilities. The aim of the degree programme is to train and support future leaders in the field of international human rights law. A central objective of the course is to ensure that participants not only know but can also use human rights law. The curriculum places roughly equal emphasis on the substance of human rights law, its implementation, and the development of human rights advocacy skills.

Tunisia has issued an international arrest warrant for ousted President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and his family, the nation's justice minister has said. Lazhar Karoui Chebbi said the interim government had asked members states to work via Interpol to detain Mr Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia on 14 January. Mr Chebbi said Mr Ben Ali was accused of illegally acquiring property and assets and transferring funds abroad.

Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika has signed a new law that allows his information minister to ban publications deemed 'contrary to the public interest', an official said on Wednesday. The new law gives powers to the information minister to ban a publication if he has 'reasonable grounds to believe that the publication or importation of any publication would be contrary to the public interest'.

The theme for the 16th African Union Summit in Addis Ababa is 'Towards Greater Unity and Integration through Shared Values'. Arguably, the success story of South-South cooperation around shared values is the African Peer Review Mechanism, says the South African Institute of International Affairs. It is the continent’s home-grown governance tracking system and will be re-examined when African leaders meet on the summit margins. Key agenda items for the APRM forum include Liberia’s accession as the APRM’s 30th member, the much-anticipated peer review of Ethiopia, and progress reports on the National Programmes of Action (NPoAs) from South Africa, Lesotho and Nigeria.

'This call is an appeal to develop wise initiatives to prevent Ivory Coast from going over the edge into disaster. This call addresses itself directly to the decision-makers of the UN, the EU, the Americas, the French, the African Union, and ECOWAS , who, by their actions, are liable to precipitate Ivory Coast and, maybe, the entire West African region into irreparable chaos.'

The November 2011 issue of the international journal Gender & Development, (published for Oxfam
GB by Routledge/Taylor and Francis) will focus on Citizenship. Development and feminist policymakers and practitioners, and academic researchers, are all invited to share insights from research and experience of Citizenship-focused development/humanitarian work in particular country contexts, which has direct relevance to development policy and practice.

Amnesty International has revealed disturbing new evidence of the brutal methods used by Tunisian security forces to try to quell anti-Government protests in recent weeks. An Amnesty International research team which has just returned from Tunisia found that security forces used disproportionate force to disperse protesters and in some cases fired on fleeing protesters and bystanders. Doctors' testimonies seen by the Amnesty International research team show that some protesters in Kasserine and Thala were shot from behind, indicating that they were fleeing. Others in Kasserine, Thala, Tunis and Regueb were killed by single shots to the chest or head, suggesting deliberate intent to kill.

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), in partnership with the Pan African Film and Television Festival (FESPACO ), is pleased to announce a two day workshop on 'African Film, Video & the Social Impact of New Technologies' that it is organising in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, on 27th-28th March 2011.