Somaliland's opposition leader Ahmed Silanyo, has been declared winner of the presidential elections held in the self-declared Republic last weekend, the electoral body said. Silanyo, who stood on the platform of the Kulmiye Party, secured nearly 50 per cent of the vote, defeating incumbent President Dahir Riyale Kahin, who garnered more than 33 per cent of the votes.

On June 17th, the third panafrican conference on best practices in ICT in francophone Africa opened in Ouagadougou, Burkina-Faso [fr]. While the conference focused on strategies to curb cyber-criminality, the Togolese blogosphere is embracing the potential of information technology for development, especially women and young people.

The Egyptian authorities have charged two plain-clothed police officers in connection with the death of a 28-year-old man in Alexandria a month ago. Witnesses say Khaled Said died after he was dragged out of an internet cafe and beaten up. The government says he swallowed a packet of drugs and choked.

The FIFA headquarters are nestled into a secluded spot on the hill overlooking Zurich, one of the richest cities in the world. Here a glass of coke will cost you R60 at a restaurant. The city, set around a lake with snow capped mountains in the background, is picture perfect in a chocolate boxy kind of way. But it’s not just a twee live-in European theme park pretending to be a city. Zurich is also home to squats, innovative housing and artists’ collectives, large immigrant communities, a thriving music scene and political dissidents from around the world.

At an energy consultation on June 29 for which it took weeks to finalize a date, 25 Egyptians from various segments of society, including NGOs, academic institutions, and private firms, all had one clear message for the World Bank to think about when designing its new energy strategy: "focus on renewable energy projects."

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has expressed deep concern over the arrest on Saturday, 26th June ,2010 of Hadis Mohemed Hadis, editor of the online paper Baadiyenews.com, an independent website published in Somaliland. Hadis is charged with “serious crimes”. “The criminal charges slammed on our colleague are fabricated with the intention to intimidate and muzzle the independent media. Hadis is charged with a “criminal offence” for simply doing his duty in a professional way” said Gabriel Baglo, Director of IFJ Africa Office.

Justice and Legal Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa was detained for almost three hours at Germany’s Munich airport on Thursday, when he was on his way to attend the European Union-Zimbabwe talks in Brussels, Belgium. Chinamasa was part of a three-member ministerial delegation that flew to Brussels via Germany. The other two are head of delegation Energy Minister, Elton Mangoma and International Cooperation Minister, Priscilla Mishairabwi-Mushonga.

Two leading HIV researchers say that countries worst affected by HIV should test whether promoting a national month of sex abstinence could slow the spread of HIV, by interrupting the chain of transmission during the primary, highly infectious stage of HIV infection. Professor Alan Whiteside of the Health Economics and HIV/AIDS Research Division (HEARD) at the University of Kwazulu-Natal and Dr Justin Parkhurst of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) say that if mathematical modelling shows the idea to have possibilities, national campaigns to test the hypothesis should follow.

Zimbabwean researchers in HIV&AIDS are afraid of including the homosexual and intarvenous drug using communities in the national HIV&AIDS priority research document they are working on because of the criminalization of these areas by the country’s government. These two areas among other minority groups are key drivers of HIV&AIDS and researchers said there was need for the nation to prioritize them and have national campaign programs targeted at them.

As the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) transforms into a stabilization force, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has stressed that the world body’s main priority of protecting civilians will continue. Last month, the Security Council passed a resolution authorizing the withdrawal of up to 2,000 UN military personnel – from an existing strength of 19,815 – by today from areas where security has improved enough to allow their removal.

Despite holding several meetings, aimed at fixing a date for the often-postponed elections, Guinean authorities have again failed to come up with a date. The latest in the series of meetings, involving President Laurent Gbagbo, his major opponents, Henri Konan Bedie, Allasane Dramane Ouattara, the representative of the mediator (Blaise Compaore), officials of the country's independent electoral commission (CEI), was held Wednesday in the capital, Abidjan, and it also failed to come up with a date.

The United Nations has launched its first compilation of the best practices for its peacekeepers and other workers to prevent, deter and respond to the use of rape as a war tactic. The booklet, titled: "Addressing Conflict-Related Sexual Violence - An Analytical Inventory of Peacekeeping Practice", was launched at the UN headquarters in New York, US.

At least 220 people were killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo when an overturned oil tanker exploded and set fire to parts of a village. Scores more were injured in the accident in Sange, near the border with Burundi. Some of those who died were trying to collect leaking fuel, but others were trapped inside buildings, including a cinema, by the fire.

Sudan has released Islamist opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi. Mr Turabi has spent a month and a half in detention after authorities arrested him in May and closed his party's newspaper. His wife alleged he had been apprehended after he repeated an allegation that the country's elections had been rigged.

Around 170,000 people were internally displaced in eastern Chad and living in 38 camps in mid-2010, as a result of internal armed conflict, inter-ethnic violence over land and natural resources, and attacks by bandits against civilians. The majority of internally displaced people (IDPs) had little or no means of sustaining themselves, making humanitarian assistance vital. Chad also hosts 270,000 Sudanese refugees in 12 camps along the eastern border with Sudan, and 81,000 Central African refugees in 11 camps along the southern border with CAR.

38 countries still criminalize same-sex relationships between consenting adults in Africa, four with death penalty. The map was launched together with the 4th edition of the State-Sponsored Homophobia published by ILGA, the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association. The report is a collection of legislation criminalising consensual sexual acts between persons of the same sex in private over the age of consent*. Maps are available in French, English, Portuguese and Spanish.

The United Nations envoy dealing with Western Sahara is holding consultations in the capitals of the nations comprising the so-called Group of Friends, a diplomatic cluster working to help resolve the dispute over the territory. Christopher Ross, the Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy for Western Sahara, started his latest trip on 21 June, and has so far visited London, Paris and Madrid. He is scheduled to visit Washington and Moscow at a later date.

President Jacob Zuma has declared that African leaders aimed to deliver on their commitments to allocate 15% of their budgets to health care and to allocate an amount for maternal, newborn and child health care.

Squealing with delight, young Elvis rushes off to greet his mother as she wends her way towards the family's hut in north-eastern Botswana's Dukwi refugee camp. The Zimbabwean infant, aged almost three, is a picture of health. But one year ago, carrying the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), he was near death's door. Elvis could barely sit up. His body was wracked with opportunistic infections, including tuberculosis, and he was constantly in hospital for treatment.

The food crisis in Niger is deteriorating faster than expected and could cost the lives of a generation, the head of the World Food Programme (WFP) said. Josette Sheeran, executive director of the organisation, said the brains and bodies of children under five will be damaged for life if they don't have adequate nutrition. The drought-stricken Sahel region in West Africa - encompassing Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Mali - is facing dwindling food supplies and high prices at market.