A new Counter Balance report ‘Hit and run development - Some things the EIB would rather you didn't know about its lending practices in Africa, and some things that can no longer be covered up’ reveals how the European Investment Bank’s use of intermediated loans and private equity funds facilitates corruption and tax evasion. The report concludes that the use of these lending tools in developing countries 'goes against any kind of development logic'.

Akina Mama wa Afrika is tendering for applications for consultants to conduct a Tracer Study on the African Women’s Leadership Institute.

Russian sailors did not shoot at sea pirates in the Gulf of Aden, Navy Commander Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky said in comment on a video clip showing crewmembers of the Marshal Shaposhnikov large anti-sub ship fire at small boats, which presumably belonged to Somali pirates. 'Our sailors would have never opened fire at people at sea. That is an absurdity, which is not worth a comment,' he said. The three-minute video clip posted on the Internet displays firing sailors, a pirate boat and an approaching ship, and missiles flying from the warship.

Widespread unrest continued to rock Algeria on Sunday (9 January) as protests continued against rising food prices despite government action to stem the riots. The Algerian cabinet agreed on Saturday to lower the custom duties and taxes on sugar and other food stuffs by 41 per cent as a temporary act to cut prices. But the measure, which will last through the end of August, did not end days of conflict in the streets between angry youth and security services.

As the continuing political stalemate threatens to unleash a civil war in Cote d’Ivoire, the United Nations is taking an increasingly aggressive stance in the widening standoff with the West African nation. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who has routinely opted for quiet, low-keyed diplomacy in political trouble spots such as North Korea, Sudan, Palestine and Myanmar (Burma), has been vociferously outspoken in condemning President Laurent Gbagbo, who has refused to step down after his defeat in the 28 November elections.

Freeman Mbowe, the chairman of Tanzania's opposition party Chadema has been released on bail by a local court, a day after police shot dead two anti-government protesters. After being released along with a group of other opposition legislators and their supporters on Thursday, Mbowe urged his followers to continue to fight for their rights.

This week, South Sudan is again going to the polls, this time to vote in a referendum on secession from the North. The preliminary result should be known by 15th January, and will mark one of the final stages of the historic 2005 agreement to end the long-standing conflict between North and South Sudan. All eyes will be on this vote, which is widely seen as likely to result in the South’s separation from the North. How will this shape women’s lives in North and South Sudan? asks this article from

Slapped into submission by a child soldier, a man thanks the gunmen who have just raped his wife and daughter, now bedraggled and whimpering. Dozens of women in a large circle observe the harrowing scene. But this is theatre - as therapy. The 'stage' is the grounds of the General Referral Hospital of Panzi, in Bukavu, capital of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s South Kivu province, a facility that specializes in treating survivors of sexual violence, of whom there are a very large number in eastern DRC, where rape is widely used as a weapon by warring groups. The performance brings together both survivors and perpetrators of extreme violence.

World trade is expected to have grown by more than 13.5 per cent in 2010, the fastest ever in global commerce, according to revised projections made by economists of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). 'This would be the fastest year-on-year expansion of trade ever recorded in a data series going back to 1950,' the WTO noted. The high growth figure, while reflecting higher industrial activities worldwide, is also a result of the severely-depressed level of trade in 2009, when world exports plunged by 12.2%, a WTO release said.

In this interview with Annar Cassam, the co-editor of 'Africa's Liberation: The Legacy of Nyerere' Cassam discusses Nyerere's life and contribution to Africa. The book includes contributions from leading commentators, those who worked and fought imperialism alongside Nyerere, members of a younger generation – and Nyerere in his own words. Their writings reflect on Nyerere and liberation, the Commonwealth, leadership, economic development, land, human rights and education. Above all, they are a testament to the growing recognition of the need to rekindle the fires of African socialism to which Nyerere was deeply committed.

As the new year starts, millions of hard-working men and women gather the money they have saved throughout the year, go to a local Western Union office and wire it to their relatives throughout the developing world. But up to 20 per cent of these savings are taken in transfer fees, allowing companies to make billions of dollars in profit on the backs of the world's neediest.

Even though freedom of conscience is enshrined in Article 5 of the Tunisian constitution, which 'protects the free exercise of beliefs with reservation that they do not disturb the public order', a growing number of women experience coercion in religious practices. Rabiaa, in her 30s, is one of them. She admits to wearing Islamic garments out of fear of her husband's violence. 'He threatened to divorce me and to prevent me from seeing my kids if I insisted on my rejection of the veil and cloak,' she told Magharebia.

This edited volume brings together some of the papers that were presented at a conference organised in Accra, Ghana by Third World Network-Africa (TWN-Africa) and the Review of African Political Economy (ROAPE) in November 2008, on the theme: ‘Beyond Foreign Direct Investment in Africa’s Mining Sector’. The conference brought together activists from community groups and NGOs, officials from African government institutions as well as intergovernmental bodies and academics to discuss the state of mining on the continent and the experience of two decades of mining sector policy dominated by strategies for attracting foreign direct investment.In total, eight papers are contained in this volume. The first four papers explore various financial aspects of mining sector reform in sub-Saharan Africa.

Reporters Without Borders has condemned the arrests and disappearances of bloggers and online activists across a number of Tunisian cities. The worldwide press freedom organisation has monitored at least five such cases but the list could well be longer. Police arrested the bloggers to question them about hacking into government websites by the militant group Anonymous, several sources told the organisation.

There are no technology shortcuts to good education. For primary and secondary schools that are underperforming or limited in resources, efforts to improve education should focus almost exclusively on better teachers and stronger administrations. Information technology, if used at all, should be targeted for certain, specific uses or limited to well-funded schools whose fundamentals are not in question, argues this article.

IRIN has produced a series of briefings exploring the crisis in Côte d’Ivoire triggered by contested elections in November 2010. Both Laurent Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara are laying claim to the presidency, with Gbagbo refusing to yield to international pressure to step down. The series takes a look at the UN’s position, issues of human rights, as well as the stances of the African Union, ECOWAS, western governments and the EU and World Bank.

Guest editor David Anderson Hooker, Director of Research and Training for 'Coming to the Table: Taking America (USA) Beyond the Legacy of Enslavement', and the editorial staff of Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts, invite submissions for the first issue of its fifth volume, entitled '500 Years Later: Reverberations of the Transatlantic Slave Trade'.

African climate researchers and applied scientists are invited to apply for fellowships in African climate science. The fellowships are offered as part of the Climate Science Research Partnership (CSRP) between the Met Office Hadley Centre (MOHC) and the Department for International Development (DFID) of the UK government. The CSRP aims are to improve the understanding and prediction of African climate on monthly, seasonal and decadal timescales and to strengthen climate science capacity in Africa.

Hacktivists have struck a blow against the regime in Zimbabwe by attacking a number of government websites. The cyber-assault appears to have been in support of newspapers who published secret cables in the ongoing WikiLeaks saga, to the annoyance of the-powers-that-be in the country. Grace Mugabe, wife of Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe, was recently reported to be suing a newspaper for $15 million after it published a WikiLeaks cable that claimed she has benefited from illegal diamond trading.

In the midst of recent protests in Sidi Bouzid, the Tunisian public discovered a new source of information which enabled them to get the latest developments as soon as they took place. Social media sites such as Facebook now compete with professional news organisations, which some observers have criticised for not reporting on the demonstrations.