Nigeria's most vocal opposition party, the Action Congress (AC), has condemned the plan by federal legislators to surreptitiously grant themselves and their state counterparts the kind of immunity from arrest and prosecution now being enjoyed by the President, Vice President and the governors of the 36 states. In a statement, issued in Abuja by its National Publicity Secretary,Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the bill, which, according to media reports, had scaled second reading in the House, could create a new set of 'untouchables' if passed into law.

In past elections, Frelimo in Tete took a hard line against any opposition, with violence and intimidation, and also obstructed observers. There is a danger that this might happen again, and our journalists are reporting higher levels of violence in Tete than elsewhere. In both 1999 and 2004, Frelimo drove all Renamo activists out of Changara district, there were no Renamo party delegates in the polling stations, and there was extensive ballot box stuffing. In 1999, Renamo houses were burned and the Renamo representative on STAE was driven out of the district.

South Africa’s Government plans to resubmit a Bill to parliament that would allow it to seize land from farmers if negotiations to buy the land from them failed, a government official has said.The expropriation Bill was submitted to parliament last year as part of efforts to speed up the process of handing over 30 per cent of agricultural land to landless blacks by 2014.

Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan says the leaders of Kenya's post-election violence should face trial. The key perpetrators are to be tried at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, but Mr Annan said it was vital that others were tried in Kenya. Mr Annan helped mediate a peace deal after the 2008 violence in which 1,300 were killed and 300,000 displaced.

This week’s [mp3] includes a report of Zimbabwe's police forcing striking workers back to work, and protest by South Africa's COSATU against labour brokers. Elsewhere, collective bargaining agreements become more popular as labour cases stack up in Kenya's courts, and Nigeria’s cement workers cry out over inhuman treatment. This bulletin is part of a partnership between Worker’s World Media Productions and Pambazuka News that seeks to highlight labour issues affecting Africa’s workers.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has firmly condemned the violence and death threats by the military junta against journalists in Guinea. Mouctar Bah, the Conakry correspondent of Agence France-Presse and Radio France Internationale, Amadou Diallo, the BBC’s correspondent and Mamadou Ba journalist of the satirical newspaper Le Lynx are roughed up by soldiers covering the violent dispersal of an opposition meeting in which more than hundred persons died in September, 28 2009.

Tierno Monenembo

Alioune Tine

Société civile

Following the students unrest on early march in Kenyatta University, four students and a lecturer were arrested after getting their suspension and expulsion letters charged with incitement and obstructing police from doing its duties.

Yesterday we received a phone call from a Kenyatta University student about the severe stabbing and strangulation of Moses Nandwale, the secretary general of University Students Leader Association. He is hospitalised; we are trying to locate the hospital he is admitted in since his phone line is not operational. Up to now there is a student still remanded in Industrial Remand Prison waiting for a 20,000 Ksh Bond. The last time we talked with Moses Nandwale was last Friday while we were in court for the mention of the five who were arrested while taking tea in Githurai 45 Hotel. Over the days Shalmat Kasim Naumi has been living in fear; even in court she was scared. Yesterday the stabbing of their fellow comrade leader shows the magnitude of the problem and the threats the students from Kenyatta University are facing.

In the meanwhile Professor Mugenda Olive – whose removal from managing Kenyatta University the students have been fighting for – yesterday heard a case brought against her by two lecturers to the industrial court over their reinstation to the institution after they lost their jobs illegally in 2006. She refused to heed the court order for the reinstatement and that’s why the judge committed her for a two-month jail term for contempt of court.

We are thankful to all the people who have shown a willingness to assist through the R.P.P secretariat. Among the students wishes is to challenge their illegal expulsion and the threats towards them.

Patrick Kamotho Githinji

In the wake of the armed African National Congress (ANC) takeover of Kennedy Road, Abahlali baseMjondolo has received support from all over the world.

Roderick Bush's new book, 'The End of White World Supremacy', is now available from .

On 7 October 2009 at 10:00 am, the Symphony Way pavement dwellers will appear in the Western Cape High Court.

has sent a letter to Mayor Dan Plato calling on the city to reconsider the eviction of the Symphony Way community to Blikkiesdorp.

We all face evictions from the city of Cape Town – for a second time. The first time was when we were evicted from the N2 Gateway houses without being given any suitable alternative place to stay. This is why we have been occupying Symphony way for 1 year and 8 months.

The city wants to put us in .

We refuse to be treated like aliens in our own country! This is why we say Asiyi eBlikkiesdorp! We will not go to tin-cans!

We will get together for our march at Keizergracht Square at 8:00 am and start marching to the High Court at 9:00 am. The march will be as follows: from Keizergracht down Darling Street, left onto Adderley Street, right into Wale Street and then left into Keerom Street where the court is situated.

For more information, contact Kareemah on (+27) 078-492-0943, Aunty Badru on (+27) 072-822-8109 and Evelyn on (+27) 072-748-6864.

To download the letter to Plato, .

* 'Voices from Symphony Way' is a forthcoming publication from Pambazuka Press.

After days of stalling, hundreds of people displaced by Kenya's post-election violence in early 2008 have begun leaving a camp in the western town of Eldoret after receiving cash handouts from the government. Most of the estimated 2,700 internally displaced persons (IDPs) had, between 28 September and 1 October, declined to accept KSh35,000 [US$460] from the government to help them resettle.

More than half of HIV-positive pregnant women in low- and middle-income countries continue to go without life-saving anti-retroviral medication that could prevent transmission of the virus to their unborn children, according to a new report, Towards Universal Access. "Although there is increasing emphasis on women and children in the global HIV/AIDS response, the disease continues to have a devastating impact on their health, livelihood and survival," Ann Veneman, executive director of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), said in a statement.

Aid workers in eastern Chad are preparing to move some 28,000 Sudanese men, women and children from a refugee camp infiltrated by supposed rebels. The Chad government decided in mid-September to relocate Ouré Cassoni camp, which is near the northern town of Bahai and 7km from the border with Sudan.

Simmering animosity and tension between non-governmental organizations and the conservative authorities of donor-dependent Swaziland are threatening to boil over, bringing legislation that could restrict the activities of civil society. "It has been building for some years. The deeper Swaziland sinks into poverty, hunger and AIDS, and the more dependent we become on non-governmental organizations [NGOs], the more hostile government officials, like MPs and some chiefs, become to NGOs," said Amos Ndwandwe, who works as a counsellor for an HIV/AIDS NGO he declined to identify, in the second city, Manzini.

The authorities of Somalia's self-declared autonomous region of Puntland have begun cracking down on would-be migrants and people smugglers, who have been using its ports to reach the Gulf States, a senior police officer has said. He said thousands of Somalis and Ethiopians had gathered in Bosasso, the commercial capital, with the aim of attempting to cross the Gulf of Aden into Yemen.

The management of Wal Fadjri told ARTICLE 19 on the phone that the 'talibes' (disciples) of religious leader Serigne Modou Kara Mbacke broke into the premises of the broadcasting company at 14h45 on 25 September 2009 wielding clubs and iron bars. The disciples wrecked part of the equipment in the marketing department and sacked the office of the head of administration.

As three truck-loads of newly arrived soldiers from the Central African Armed Forces (FACA) drove through Obo, local residents talked with bitterness and resignation about the continuing security problems and inability of either local forces or their allies from the better-equipped Ugandan People’s Defence Force (UPDF) to flush out combatants from the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

Despite efforts to accommodate disabled students in Niger's schools, a lack of trained specialists limits the number of children schools can serve, according to the NGO Handicap International. "Schools for blind and deaf persons do not have qualified teachers to work with this population," Abdourhamane Barké, an outreach worker with Handicap International in the capital Niamey, said.

The United Nations has provided hundreds of bicycles and motorcycles for Zimbabwean health workers to respond to potential cholera and flu outbreaks, the latest in a series of steps by the world body to help the southern African country confront acute humanitarian needs. The 300 black bicycles and 124 bright red motor cycles, purchased by the UN World Health Organisation (WHO) with $500,000 from the Central Emergency Response Fund, will enable health workers to move quickly to prepare for and respond to potential health concerns, including cholera outbreaks and the H1N1 flu pandemic.