Bill Law investigates the causes and consequences of the great global land grab, as richer nations and multi-national corporations acquire vast tracts of land in developing countries. Big corporations and countries are eying up Africa for mega agricultural development. Critics call it the new land grab, but Africa can benefit from the expertise, infrastructure and equity that such developments bring - if the terms are right. Bill visits Kenya to weigh up the pros and cons of agricultural super projects in a country wrestling with food insecurity.

Many tribal people in the Lower Omo Valley in Ethiopia are starving as the region is in the grip of a drought and the river’s annual flood has failed. The Kwegu, a small hunter-gatherer tribe, have been badly hit. Survival has received reports that two Kwegu children and four adults died from hunger in November.

The double pressures of climate change and poverty threaten to make Africa one of the regions hardest hit by coming climate-related problems. Nowhere is that more evident than in Zimbabwe, where the urban poor already struggle to survive in a harsh economic climate.

Reporters Without Borders joins its partner organisation in Somalia, the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), in expressing deep concern about the fate of Ali Yusuf Adan, a journalist who was arrested on 21 February in an area controlled by the Islamist militia Al-Shabaab.

A year ago, Goma town in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was temporarily home to tens of thousands displaced by fighting between government forces and various armed groups. Now, many have returned to their villages.

The High Court of Swaziland ruled on 23 February 2010 that some married women will be allowed to register property in their own name. It has been five years since the new Constitution granted women equal status, after centuries of being classified and treated as minors.

Rwandan nurses will soon be authorized to start HIV-positive patients on life-prolonging antiretroviral treatment (ART), a move Ministry of Health officials say will speed up the rollout of ART in the East African nation.

A History of the Yoruba People is an audacious comprehensive exploration of the founding and growth of one of the most influential groups in Africa. With a population of nearly 40 million spread across Western Africa and diaspora communities in Europe, the Caribbean, Latin America and North America, the Yoruba are one of the most researched groups emanating from Africa. Yet, to date, very few attempts have tried to grapple fully with the historical foundations and development of a group that has contributed to shaping the way African communities are analysed from prehistoric to modern times.

In this week's emerging powers news roundup, Africa-based Mi-Fone mobile devices makes entry into Indian market, China looks set to abandon Zimbabwe, India offers fellowships to African researchers, and Indian farmers to explore Africa for agriculture prospects

International People’s Health University (IPHU) of the People’s Health Movement (PHM) and Great Lakes University of Kisumu (GLUK) announce "THE STRUGGLE FOR HEALTH" a short training course from 19 to 28 April 2010 in Kisumu, Kenya. In association with the 7th TICH annual scientific conference: Innovations towards Achieving the Millennium Development Goals (29 April – 2 May, 2010).

The Third Meeting, Third Session of the Second East African Legislative Assembly sitting at the Chambers of the Parliament of Uganda in Kampala has today adopted a common strategy for food security in the region. In a lively plenary session chaired by the Speaker of EALA, Hon. Abdirahin Haithar Abdi, Members adopted the Report on common strategy for food security in the EAC as presented by the Chair of the Committee on Agriculture, Tourism and Natural Resources, Hon. Dr. George Francis Nangale (Tanzania).

Nigeria's much-bashed electoral umpire Maurice Iwu is under fire again, after the country's main opposition party Sunday demanded his sack over a series of allegations. Iwu heads Nigeria's Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and has been widely vilified for organising what local and foreign observers consider to be the worst elections in the country's history in 2007.

SADC tribunal rulings against the seizure of farmers land in Zimbabwe should be registered, recognised and enforceable by the South African government, the High Court in Pretoria has ordered. Judge Garth Rabie ruled in favour of white farmers - represented by AfriForum - who have argued that the seizure of their land without compensation was a human rights abuse.

Ivory Coast authorities have announced a new election commission, key to ending disputes that have threatened the country's peace process. The crisis began two weeks ago, when President Laurent Gbagbo dissolved the previous body, accusing it of fraud and being controlled by the opposition.

South African trade unions are threatening strikes after the country's government allowed state-owned power firm Eskom to raise prices by 24.8%. Both consumers and businesses will struggle with significantly higher electricity bills, unions argue. The Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry said firms were already struggling to cope with the fallout of recession and slow economic recovery.

In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the West moved quickly to crack down on the money laundering and secret banking systems that fund much of the terrorism in the world. But as evidence in both the U.S. and Europe suggests, illicit finances continue to circulate around the globe — and quite often the money has nothing to do with violence, but plain greed.

The World Bank’s private investment arm, the International Finance Corp., won’t make new commitments in Democratic Republic of Congo until a dispute over a canceled mining contract is resolved, an IFC spokesman said. The IFC owns 7.5% of a $553 million copper and cobalt project led by Canada’s First Quantum Minerals Ltd. that Congo canceled in August after a review of mining contracts. The case is now before an international arbitration court in Paris.

A three-day seminar to discuss ways to strength en cross-border co-operation for the protection of children at risk and to better regulate inter-country adoption has opened in Pretoria, South Africa. South Africa's Department of International Relations and Cooperation and the Hag ue Conference on Private International Law based in the Netherlands are co-hosting the seminar, which opened Tuesday.

South Africa's land reform minister said on Friday it would be impossible for the government to meet its own target of acquiring farm land to restore to blacks after it was taken from them during apartheid.

The process of drafting a new Zimbabwean constitution has been further delayed, meaning the country’s new charter is now running seven months behind schedule. A co-leader of parliament’s constitutional committee Munyaradzi- Paul Mangwana told journalists in Harare this week that Zimbabwe would not have a new constitution before February 2011 at the earliest.