In the newly opened red brick Lubango health clinic, a long line of Angolans wait their turn to see one of the two Cuban doctors working here. The doctors were assigned to provide health care to some 30,000 people in the southern province of Huila. The Lubango clinic is one of several that have recently opened across Angola. The clinics are symbols of hope for a country once plagued by one of the world’s longest civil wars, which ended in 2002 and left a severely damaged health-care system in its wake.

The candidate of the Union for democratic forces in Guinea (UFDG), Cellou Dalein Diallo, who won 39.72% of the votes, and Alpha Conde, of the Rally for Guinean people (RPG), who got 20.67%, will compete for the secon d round of the Guinea presidential election, the country's National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) ruled. Announcing the result of the 27 June elections, CENI said the leader of the Union for Republican forces (UFR), Sidya Toure, came third with 15.60%, followed by Lansana Kouyate, of the party for hope and national development (PEDN), with 7.75 %.

Amnesty International calls on the government of Zimbabwe to immediately and unconditionally release detained human rights defender, Farai Maguwu. He has been in custody since 3 June 2010, when he presented himself to the police and was arrested on allegations of “publishing or communication false information prejudicial to the state.” A Harare Magistrate denied Maguwu bail following state submissions that more time was needed to continue with investigations. Maguwu’s bail application was repeatedly postponed before being heard by the court.

A court in South Africa has found the country's former chief of police Jackie Selebi guilty of corruption. Selebi, also a former president of Interpol, was accused of having links to organised crime and accepting bribes worth 1.2m rand ($156,000, £103,000). But the court found him not guilty of perverting the course of justice. Selebi had denied both charges.

The UN is to set up a single agency dedicated to promote the rights of women and girls around the world. The UN General Assembly voted in favour of the body after four years of negotiations. The new UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women will be referred to as UN Women, officials said.

Drive a few hours north-east of Khartoum towards Kassala, near the Sudanese border with Eritrea, and you will come across one of the UN refugee agency's most striking achievements in the region – acre after acre of trees, stretching into the distance. UNHCR has planted more than 19 million of them in a programme, launched a quarter-of-a-century ago, to green the denuded landscape of eastern Sudan. Species of acacia, neem, eucalyptus and many others, now cover almost 28,400 hectares of once barren land.

The MSMGF is pleased to announce the launch of our newest policy brief, HIV Prevention with MSM: Balancing Evidence with Rights-based Principles of Practice. This document details the current context for the development and implementation of HIV prevention efforts targeting MSM, provides an overview of available MSM-specific HIV prevention strategies, and offers a look at recent guidelines from global health institutions. Recommendations emphasize the importance of respecting the role of MSM in efforts to determine research, policy, and program priorities, as well as other core principles of practice that are often overlooked in policy discussions.

Although the flow of Somali refugees into neighbouring countries has weakened, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today cautioned that the Horn of Africa nation’s security and humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate. Compared to last year, the number of Somalis arriving in Kenya and Yemen – the two countries which have received the greatest number of Somali refugees – are down sharply.

The average American waits less than a second for Google to respond to a search query. In most of Africa, it takes three seconds to do the same thing. This two-second difference may not seem a drastic, but such a delay typifies the gap between Internet use in Africa and other parts of the world. Despite slow connection speed, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization estimates the number of internet users in Africa has grown an astounding 1,809.8 percent in the past decade; this is almost three times the combined rate of the rest of the world. Despite this increase, only 3.9 percent of Africa's population uses the Internet.

Madagascan female activists are asking that the right of women to participate directly in politics be included in a new draft of the country’s Constitution, so that there can be 30 percent of female politicians in parliament by 2012 and 50 percent by 2015.

Agathon Rwasa, the leader of Burundi's main opposition party, has said he has gone into hiding after learning that the government wanted to arrest him on charges that he planned to mount a new insurgency. In a tape recording sent to media agencies on Wednesday, Rwasa, a former rebel leader, said that he had also been threatened for rejecting the results of last month's district elections.

African democracy institute Idasa is to hold a conference in Nairobi, Kenya, from 8-10 November, on "Governance and Small-scale Agriculture in West Africa". It will examine governance and public investment processes and how these are shaping small-scale agriculture in the region.

Across some of South Africa’s most impoverished neighbourhoods, a youth photography programme is helping students document their lives – while also raising wider awareness of their communities’ struggles. The Umuzi Photo Club is run entirely by a volunteer staff of dedicated teachers and organizers. The innovative organization integrates technical and creative skills with organic community development, helping young people see their communities – and find solutions to problems – in new ways.

In appreciation of the tremendous progress made by the authorities in Niger to return the country to constitutional order, ECOWAS leaders decided here Friday that the country can once again attend the meetings of the regional bloc, albeit as an observer. Niger's suspension could be totally lifted if the ongoing political transition programme in the country culminates in the restoration of democracy by March 2011, as contained in the transition time-table rolled out by the ruling junta.

Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai should pull out of the government of national unity to prevent his Movement for Democratic Change from becoming irrelevant, the head of Zimbabwe's National Constitutional Alliance said. Lovemore Madhuku told delegates to a conference held by rights group Zimbabwe Democracy Now at the University of the Witwatersrand yesterday that the MDC could lose credibility and support if it did not act soon.

A debt relief programme worth $12.3bn (£8.1bn) has been agreed for the Democratic Republic of Congo, it has been announced. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank said the country had made good efforts to reform its economy and governance in recent years.

What is the potential of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to support processes of democratisation and empowerment in developing countries? This report, prepared for the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, outlines the theoretical background to discussions on ICTs and democracy, and presents case studies from Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.

South Africa's President Jacob Zuma has reiterated that country's long-held view and called for international financial institutions to be overhauled to give developing economies a greater say. Addressing a session of the Group of 20 (G-20) in Toronto at the weekend, Mr Zuma said it was time for the group’s leaders to take the initiative with regard to the reform of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The International Federation of the Journalists (IFJ) has strongly condemned the bomb attack against eight journalists on Tuesday, 29th June 2010, the injury of another journalist on July 1st and the arrest of two journalists in Mogadishu, capital of Somalia. “We condemn these senseless attacks which had caused lot of injuries, to innocent civilians including those of our colleagues” said Gabriel Baglo, Director of IFJ Africa office. “It is a stark reminder of the dangers the Somali media are exposed to in their daily work. We demand an urgent reaction from the Transitional Government to ensure their protection.”

It has been revealed that between 10 to 15 percent of Cameroonians suffer from Hepatitis B, C and D. This gives a total population of over two million Cameroonians. This revelation was made recently during celebrations marking the World Day of Viral-Hepatitis in Yaounde under the auspices of the Minister of Public Health, Andre Mama Fouda.