Morocco plans to train schoolchildren to help lure other youngsters into the classroom under a government initiative aimed at boosting enrolment rates. Some 500,000 schoolchildren will be trained to take part in the "Child for Child" census-taking programme that the Department of Education launched on Thursday (March 25th). Students aged 6-15 will work with teachers and officials in April and May to encourage youth who are not enrolled in school to return to their studies.

Scientists say they have identified a potential treatment for sleeping sickness, a killer disease that infects about 60,000 people in Africa a year. British and Canadian experts say drugs could attack an enzyme the parasite causing the illness needs to survive.

A majority of a pre-trial chamber of International Criminal Court (ICC) judges today approved the ICC prosecutor's request to open an investigation into Kenya's 2007 post-election violence, Human Rights Watch said. The Kenyan inquiry is the first investigation begun by the prosecutor acting on his own initiative.

While agricultural research has made massive strides over the years in helping the world produce more food from the same amount of land, around one in six people, the 1.02 billion hungry, have not noticed.

High-quality education is the foundation for success and growth. There is a need for empowered teachers, strong school leaders, better curricula, and the ability for students to connect with one another and the rest of the world, says Anthony Salcito, Vice President, Worldwide Public Sector – Education, Microsoft.

Dozens of farmers, veterinarians and farm workers have been infected with Rift Valley fever in South Africa, and at least two people have died, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) has reported.

There have been numerous reports from human rights organisations and from the MDC-T of an upsurge of violence in rural areas such as in Mutasa North, Mudzi, Bindura and Masvingo, by ZANU PF sponsored thugs. On Wednesday the pressure group Restoration of Human Rights (ROHR) reported that terror had broken out in Muzarabani, resulting in 16 families fleeing their homes.

Experts have called on the government to establish an agency that will coordinate and manage ICT activities so as to enhance the sector's growth. The call was made during at an ICT summit, which was held in Dar es Salaam to take stock of digital development in Tanzania and explore ways to catapult the sector to a new level. The experts and other stakeholders said the proposed body will also assume regulatory functions in order to create a level playing field in the fast growing industry.

Talks on the fate of the Western Sahara remained stalled last week as the UN envoy charged with facilitating diplomacy, Christopher Ross, wrapped up his regional tour. Ross, whose eight-day visit to Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania and the Sahrawi camps ended in Algiers on Thursday (March 25th), said that while concerned parties "stressed their willingness to pursue the course of negotiations", their stances remained far apart.

The Nigerian Senate has cleared 38 ministerial nom inees for appointment into the federal cabinet, paving the way for Acting President Goodluck Jonathan to sw ear them into office and give them portfolios. The clearance of the nominees marked the end of three days of screening by the upper legislative chamber.

Heavy rains hit Maniema province in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), flooding the provincial capital Kindu and seven neighbouring villages, according to the local government. The port city of Kindu was submerged with at least 1,220 citizens displaced in the rains that pounded the area and lifted the water levels in the River Congo, the local environment department reported on Tuesday.

This manual is designed to help NGOs in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) who may be interested in the field of Human Rights but feel that they do not know enough about it or where to start. Sections include:

Understanding the Problem
The Skills a Human Rights NGO needs
Building Cultures that favour Human Rights
Interventions
Working in Co-operation
Helping the Damaged
Further information (web links)

ECOWAS Commission President James Victor Gbeho has decla red that the 'era of coups is over' in West Africa, following years of political instability highlighted by military intervention in the governance of member states.

Countries seeking food security and will allow investors to export all of their produce, the head of a private Nigerian agriculture consultancy firm said on Monday. Gulf Arab countries reliant on food imports have intensified efforts over the last year to buy land in developing nations ranging from Pakistan to the Sudan and Ethiopia.

Mauritian Prime Minister, Navin Ramgoolam, on Wednesday evening announced the dissolution of parliament and the holding of legislative elections on 5 May. Speaking to journalists, he said the elections would be “a democratic rendez-vous" for the country and praised his government's achievements.

Large-scale leases of African farmland by foreign investors risk driving conflict and fueling corruption in the region, farm experts said Monday at a conference on agricultural research and development. But if regulations for responsible foreign land investment can be drafted and followed, such leases could provide a much-needed cash infusion for African agriculture which has struggled to find investment elsewhere, they said.

An international think tank has accused Sudan’s ruling party of trying to rig elections in war-torn Darfur region, as the country prepares for its first multi-party polls in 24 years. The International Crisis Group said voter registers for the April 11 to 18 polls had been manipulated, constituencies based on a flawed 2008 census and the election commission staffed with too many pro-government officials, in a report released late on Tuesday.

For the first time, China led the United States and other G-20 members in 2009 clean energy investments and finance, according to data released by The Pew Charitable Trusts. Last year, China invested $34.6 billion in the clean energy economy – nearly double the United States’ total of $18.6 billion. Over the last five years, the United States also trailed five G-20 members (Turkey, Brazil, China, the United Kingdom, and Italy) in the rate of clean energy investment growth.

Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (“ill-treatment”), in almost all cases, happen in secret. Access to lawyers, as well as to doctors, and contact with friends or family members creates a more open detention environment which helps to prevent torture and other ill-treatment. The right to be protected from torture and other ill-treatment is a fundamental one from which no derogation is permitted. This briefing note is intended to outline the current state of the law in relation to access to legal counsel promptly after deprivation of liberty as a safeguard against torture and other ill-treatment.

What was supposed to be a joyous day turned into a nightmare for one family, when on Monday morning 1 February, Maria Lungu* arrived at Lusaka International Airport after a two-month long business trip in Asia. Joy turned to shock and disbelief when Lungu was caught and arrested for drug trafficking upon arrival, just meters away from her anxiously waiting husband, children and other family members.