In this week's roundup of emerging actors news, Moroccan prime minister meets Communist Party delegation, China to embark on multi-billion dollar investment in Ethiopia, South Africa boosts coal supplies to China and India, and Korea has important lessons to teach Africa.

Africa’s large dams (more than 1,270 at last count) have consistently been built at the expense of rural communities, who have been forced to sacrifice their lands and livelihoods to them yet have reaped few benefits. Large hydro dams in Sudan, Senegal, Kenya, Zambia/Zimbabwe and Ghana have brought considerable social, environmental and economic damage to Africa, and have left a trail of "development–induced poverty" in their wake.

Microsoft will want to be a player rather than just a big spender in South Africa’s black empowerment policy, the company has said following the announcement it would spend about half a billion rands (about US$ 64 million) in the next seven years to boost local business partnerships.

African nations must pool resources to promote local pharmaceutical innovation, say Ibrahim Assane Mayaki and Carel IJsselmuiden. Africa bears a quarter of the world's disease burden, yet accounts for less than one per cent of global expenditure on health. About half of the continent's population lacks access to essential medicines and the few drugs that are available often come from outside — Sub-Saharan Africa imports nearly 90 per cent of its medicines.

Does your community need access to information but has limited or no access to the internet or email? Do you want to be able to share more information than 160 characters allows? Freedom Fone offers the possibility to extend the reach of information to citizens and groups presently excluded from the information loop because of lack of access to resources such as computers and the internet.

Zimbabwe is expected to pass legislation that could help it take better advantage of information technology, despite the economic crisis that has gripped the country. The Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Bill, which would pave the way for implementing a strategic ICT plan launched in February, is currently awaiting cabinet approval before it goes to parliament for further scrutiny.

The rise of an organized poor people's movement in South Africa's most populous province, KwaZulu-Natal, is being met with increasing hostility by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) government, which claims to be the legitimate representative of the poorest of the poor. South Africa has been rocked by increasingly frequent service delivery protests - a euphemism for communities taking to the streets to voice their frustration with the alleged slow pace of social service provision - but it is the formation of a militant non-aligned social movement, Abahlali Basemjondolo - shack-dwellers movement, in Zulu - that is causing greatest concern.

Hotel Yeoville, is a ground-breaking public art project which, by way of freshly designed digital interfaces, keys into the diversity of Forced Migrant, Refugee and South African experiences that make the controversial suburb of Yeoville such a hot melting pot. This neglected suburb on the eastern edge of Johannesburg is home to 40 000 people, 70 percent of whom are migrants and refugees from the rest of the African continent.

Volcanic ash crisis - Though flights have resumed across Europe after clouds of ash from the Iceland volcano disrupted flights for days, Kenya's flower and vegetable industry has been cou nting its losses from the crisis, amid reports that the industry was losing US$3 million per day at the peak of the flight-an situation.

Sudan’s poll results, due on Thursday, will be delayed – and a full picture is unlikely to emerge until next week – says the National Elections Commission. The delay has been occasioned by the counting that is taking longer than anticipated and other logistical problems.

The government’s amnesty programme whereby militants in the Niger delta are to be disarmed and rehabilitated with a stipend, job training and a micro-credit loan, has been linked to reduced violence in the delta, but critics say it has made the same mistake as almost every other disarmament, demobilization, rehabilitation and reintegration (DDRR) campaign: too much “dd” and not enough “rr”’.

The Nigerian military has exhumed seven fresh corpses from shallow graves near the city of Jos, in the latest apparent revenge killing. There are almost daily reports of attacks on people in rural villages and of disappearances in Jos itself.

The Lesotho Highlands Water Project will move into its second phase in 2010. The first phase has been praised as a shining example of transboundary water sharing in Africa, but community dissatisfaction may mean a rough ride for its extension. The Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) is the largest on the continent, transferring water from the Malimatso, Mtsoku and Senqunyane rivers to South Africa’s industrial heartland in Gauteng province.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick is expected to formally release the World Bank Group’s request for an estimated $58 billion general capital increase (GCI) on Sunday, April 25th at the conclusion of the World Bank’s Spring Meeting this weekend. A broad and growing global coalition of environmental, faith-based, human rights, community, and indigenous rights groups are calling for an end to the Bank’s continued financing of dirty energy projects, withholding support for the Bank’s GCI request within member country capitals as a consequence.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has denounced the convocation on Monday in Douala, of Mrs. Henriette Ekwe, Director of the Weekly newspaper, Bebela by officers of the Secret Information Service, the military security and the Head office of External Research (DGRE), over her appearance on a programme broadcast on Equinox TV on April 6th.

After graduating from a teacher training college in Kenya thanks to a United Nations-backed scholarship scheme, three Somali men are returning to the refugee camp they grew up in to help the next generation of children. Aden Yusef Mohamed, Ahmed Aden Hasa and Hish Mohamed Maow ranked in the top 20 among the 500 students they graduated from the two-year programme at the Nakuru Teachers Training College.

Villagers in districts of Mashonaland East provinces have been told to brace themselves for more political violence, following ‘promises’ from ZANU PF officials they would be dealt with after the 2010 World cup finals. Pressure group, Zimbabwe Democracy Now, issued a statement Thursday detailing how Mike Chiwodza, a ZANU PF district chairman, has been going around the province telling villagers ‘We will kill you after the World Cup.’

The quality of research examining HIV prevention programmes targeted at young people in Africa is poor, according to the authors of a systematic review and meta-analysis published in the online edition of AIDS. Moreover, evidence that such prevention programmes had an effect was limited and confined to sub-groups.

A protest march will take place in Pretoria on Freedom Day, April 27, to demand equality for lesbians and gays in both the U.S. and Uganda. Organised by Up & Out, the University of Pretoria's gay organisation, the protestors will march from the Ugandan Embassy to the U.S. Embassy. The U.S. has been slammed by the organisation for its continued refusal to grant same-sex couples federal marriage rights and benefits. "How can a supposed first world nation decide to do such things?" asked Up & Out in a statement.

The Fourth African Conference on FOSS and the Digital Commons (IDLELO 4) to be held from 17th - 21st May, 2010, in Accra at the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT (AITI-KACE). This knowledge-building and sharing event under the theme: “Development with Ownership” is a forum for African experts and their global partners to share experience in order to expand awareness of the 'open' philosophy and the creation and use of open technologies for the benefit of our people.