The voter education on the referendum has received a shot in the arm after the government announced the release of Sh553 million to the Committee of Experts, ending weeks of bickering between the two parties. The money is not in the budget, but has had to be reallocated from other ministries and will be regularised in next week’s budget, which will cater for all constitution review needs.

Human rights campaigner group Amnesty International has condemned the reported execution of 18 people in Libya. The 18, some from Chad, Egypt and Nigeria, were executed on Sunday in Tripoli and Benghazi, Libyan media reported. Amnesty International said they feared the accused had not had fair trials.

For six families living in derelict changing rooms next to one of South Africa's official training venues in Cape Town, the prospect of the football World Cup has turned from a dream to a nightmare. The families who comprise 24 people, half of them children, are facing eviction to make space for the parking area next to the Athlone Stadium which has been upgraded to the tune of 406m rand ($53m, £36m) to bring it up to Fifa standards.

Presentations and readings from his book ‘Selected Pan-African Postcards’ with Dr Ama Biney, editor, and Dr Patricia Daley.

Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem's Pan-African postcards demonstrate his steadfast commitment to Pan-Africanism and his vociferous belief in the potential of Africa and African people.

Date: Thursday 17 June 2010
Time: 5.30–7pm
Place: Rhodes House, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3RG

All welcome

We're proud to announce that Sokari Ekine, one of the writers behind Pambazuka News’ weekly ‘Blogging Africa’ column, has been nominated for two awards for her wonderful blog, – ‘Best political blog’ and ‘Best theme’. Join us in supporting her by casting your vote at the Nigerian Blog Awards!

The World People's Movement demands that United Nations climate change negotiations be inclusive, transparent, and equitable, and include the proposal expressed by the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth (Cochabamba, Bolivia, April 20–22).

Albert Bourgi

Pierre S. Adjété

Gaza-based Palestinian Civil Society Organisations and international activists called on the international community and civil society to pressure their governments and Israel to cease the abductions and killings in Israel’s attacks against the Gaza Freedom Flotilla sailing for Gaza, and begin a global response to hold Israel accountable for the murder of foreign civilians at sea and illegal piracy of civilian vessels carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza.

International Human Rights Advocates join the Erlinder family in condemning Rwanda's arrest of US Attorney Peter Erlinder and demanding his immediate release. Professor Erlinder, a faculty member at William Mitchell College of Law in the United States and president of the Association des Avocats de la Defense (ADAD), the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) Defense Lawyers Association, was arrested by the government of Rwanda under the leadership of President Paul Kagame. Peter Erlinder has been arrested in the course of his representation of Rwanda’s opposition leader, Victoire Ingabire.

Main One Cable Company, a submarine cable company offering open access, wholesale broadband capacity in West Africa, and its system supplier, Tyco Electronics Subsea Communications SubCom, have completed the installation of the first phase of its cable system on schedule

Three women have been selected to fill senior-level positions at the African Development Bank, AfDB president Donald Kaberuka announced on May 14th. Cecilia Akintomide will serve as the first-ever female Secretary-General of the bank, while Hela Cheikhrouhou will head the New Energy, Environment and Climate Change department. Gemina Archer-Davies will direct the Corporate Human Resources Management branch.

"Behind an orderly facade, the government pressured, intimidated and threatened Ethiopian voters, ...Whatever the results, the most salient feature of this election was the months of repression preceding it." - Rona Peligal, acting Africa director at Human Rights Watch. There is little surprise in Ethiopian election results now beginning to come out, with the ruling party being returned with overwhelming majorities in all parts of the country. Nor has there been any large-scale violence reported, although some observers warned that new crackdowns on opposition might follow the election, But both Ethiopian and non-Ethiopian critics warn that the most important issues are structural, and that the appearance of democracy is belied by an authoritarian system.

Developing countries like Malawi are calculating the cost of adhering to new World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines that recommend starting HIV-positive people on antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) sooner. Malawi is one of three African countries that have conducted WHO-supported feasibility studies to assess what adopting the new guidelines would mean, and has announced plans to roll out the new WHO guidelines by mid-2011, said Dr Frank Chimbwandira, head of the HIV and AIDS department in the Ministry of Health.

A microbicide that researchers are pinning their hopes on is safe for use in pregnant women, according to a study presented at the Microbicide 2010 conference taking place in the United States this week. Study participants applied a single dose of tenofovir gel two hours before birth by cesarean section.

Making services for the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) available without addressing the factors that keep mothers from accessing these services was an exercise in futility, experts told a press briefing in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

South African farmers have not received government support for 10 years, but Agriculture Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson intends to change this by pushing the World Trade Organisation (WTO) restrictions to the limit to do so. State assistance to agriculture has been a controversial issue for many years in the WTO and is on the agenda in the current Doha round of negotiations. Of particular importance are support measures for agriculture in developed countries that render products from the developing world uncompetitive.

The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA), in collaboration with FARA, Yam-Pukri, CAFAN, AYF, ANAFE and PAFPNET, is organizing an essay writing contest on Youth and ICTs in Agriculture and Rural Development, aimed at identifying innovative solutions on challenges faced by
youth in agriculture and rural areas using Information and Communication Technologies.

Kenya should encourage the use of bamboo in building affordable shelters, especially for 60 percent of the population who live in poorly constructed dwellings in rural areas, says a specialist. "Poor construction means they [houses] serve as breeding grounds for diseases including malaria, amoebic dysentery and respiratory conditions, which commonly claim the lives of many of their inhabitants,” Jacob Kibwange, project director of an initiative at Maseno University that aims to encourage bamboo exploitation, told IRIN.

Africa’s regulators are increasingly moving to assert their role as the protector of consumer interests in the ICT space. This week the Commissioner responsible for Consumer Affairs told a meeting held by the Liberian Consumers Action Network that it had established a consumer help desk. But if the landscape for ICT consumers is getting more complicated then the responsibilities of companies within the sector is also becoming more demanding.

Surveys of condom use in women based on self-report may be seriously unreliable, to the extent of overestimating true use by 100%, the 2010 International Microbicides Conference has heard. This finding comes from a South African survey, but if it applies broadly it may have significant effects on trial design and mathematical modelling of the effect of microbicides.