Nigeria's ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chair Vincent Ogbulafor has resigned, a few days after he and three others were arraigned on a 16-count fraud charge, the local press reported. The report said Ogbulafor would present his letter of resignation Friday, after addressing the party's National Working Committee in the capital city of Abuja.

The statutory Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) is set to receive applications for registration by media houses with effect from 4 May 2010 in a development that raises hope for the return of the banned The Daily News and other new publications.

There has been fresh fighting in south Sudan between the Southern army and forces loyal to the former general George Athor. The army has denied claims by Mr Athor that dozens of its soldiers were killed in the clashes in Jonglei state.

Every minute, another woman dies in pregnancy or childbirth. Every minute, the loss of a mother shatters a family and threatens the well-being of surviving children. Evidence shows that infants whose mothers die are more likely to die before reaching their second birthday than infants whose mothers survive. And for every woman who dies, 20 or more experience serious complications.

Disgruntled mobile phone customers in West African nation Ghana are planning a day to switch off their phones for six hours to register their grievances to network operators. Customers have not had quality for their money over the years and are hoping to get heard with the "Ghana Off Phone Day."

UNICEF has welcomed the results of a study by the Human Sciences Research Council suggesting that HIV prevalence has dropped by more than half in children ages 2-14. According to the survey, HIV prevalence dropped from 5.6% in 2002 to 2.5% in 2008.

South Africa has achieved near universal access to health services for pregnant women and their children, but maternal and infant mortality rates have continued to rise making the chances of reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on maternal and child health increasingly remote.

The UN refugee agency is alarmed at reports of a dramatic rise in the frequency and brutality of attacks by the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) from Uganda against civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and the Central African Republic (CAR).

Mayuge district has 31,000 farming families served by just nine agricultural extension workers. In Wainha village, an internet centre run by the Busoga Rural Open Source and Development Initiative is more than filling the gap in assisting farmers. Joseph Wangolo is still mesmerised by the computers, six years after he first saw one. "That thing is so clever it will give you information about anything. It knows even our village, can you imagine?" he says.

In the face of a rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation, the United Nations refugee agency has called for increased funding to help those displaced both inside and outside Somalia. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), made the appeals on Wednesday, as the UN Security Council was meeting in an open session at the UN headquarters in New York to discuss the current situation in Somalia.

Nigeria's state-run oil firm NNPC and China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) have signed a $23bn (£16bn; 18bn euros) deal. The two will jointly seek financing and credits from Chinese authorities and banks to build three refineries and a fuel complex in Nigeria.

After 13 years on Zimbabwe's death row, George Manyonga is still waiting to see his lawyer. He saw him once, briefly, the day before his trial, but since then he has been left on his own. He has lost his lawyer and now he is losing hope. "I'm paying a price for something I never committed," Manyonga says.

President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has pledged to promote the emergence an AIDS-Free Generation, to ensure safer motherhood and to eliminate mother-child-transmission of HIV in his country. “These are priorities for the women and children of my country,” President Kabila said as he received a joint mission to his nation by Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, UNFPA’s Executive Director, and Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS’ Executive Director.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC-T party was expected to convene a crisis meeting of its National Council over the weekend, to deliberate on the continued persecution of Treasurer General Roy Bennett, amongst other issues. On Monday the High Court acquitted Bennett of the cooked-up terrorism charges filed against him. The Attorney General initially said he would not appeal the acquittal in the Supreme Court but after some discussion with various ZANU PF big-wigs, he changed his mind.

On Friday 14 May, a deputation from London Coalition Against Poverty visited the South African High Commission to deliver a message in solidarity with their sister group in Durban, the shackdwellers’ movement, Abahlali baseMjondolo. Even with the world’s attention focused on their city, the group is experiencing massive repression and its leaders have been driven into hiding.

Ugandan AIDS activists have expressed concern over a decision by the Ministry of Health to back an HIV/AIDS bill that would criminalize the deliberate transmission of HIV. Last week, State Minister for Health in charge of General Duties, Richard Nduhura, appeared before the parliamentary committee on HIV to explain the government's position on the HIV and AIDS Prevention and Control Bill (2009). Nduhura backtracked on his earlier position that portions of the bill would lead to discrimination and undermine the rights of people living with HIV.

Prompted by a rapidly deteriorating situation and growing displacement in Somalia UNHCR is seeking additional funds to ease the plight of Somali refugees in neighbouring Kenya, Yemen, Ethiopia and Djibouti and those forcibly displaced inside their country. The two supplementary appeals being launched in Geneva address the increasing needs in Somalia and four neighbouring countries as well as the extension of the Ifo camp in Dadaab, Kenya. Including an additional US$ 60 million being sought today, UNHCR's overall budgetary needs in Somalia and its four neighbouring countries in 2010 presently amount to US$ 424.7 million. So far this year, UNHCR has received 36 percent of its global comprehensive needs budget.

Amnesty International has called on the Egyptian authorities to halt the forced eviction of 200 families in the north-east of the country as part of a road widening project. Without prior notice, bulldozers arrived to demolish the homes in Zerzara slums in Port Said on Tuesday, 4 May 2010, leaving fifteen families homeless and another 200 at risk.

US lawmakers called on President Barack Obama Thursday to quickly sign legislation mandating his administration develop a strategy for battling Uganda's rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). "Congress is committed to ending the LRA's reign of terror," said Democratic Senator Russell Feingold, a key author of the measure, which cleared the House of Representatives late Wednesday.

President Jacob Zuma continues to express optimism about the negotiation process in Zimbabwe, telling Parliament this week that ''some achievements have been registered''. Zuma, the Southern African Development Community's chief mediator on Zimbabwe, said that country's political rivals had agreed to establish a human rights commission, an electoral commission and a media commission, and that the commissioners - who were respected by most Zimbabweans - had been sworn in.