The Tanzanian government has refuted media reports indicating that it has leased out 1000 square kilometres of farmland to South Koreans. It was reported that South Korea had agreed to develop farmland in Tanzania, the latest in series of such deals between rich and poor nations.

National governments, in cooperation with international agencies and donors, should reconsider their decision to deport people living with HIV/AIDS, human rights groups said. A report, released by four HIV/AIDS and human rights groups, describes cases in South Korea, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, South Africa, and the US, in which HIV-positive migrants were deported, saying that there was the need to develop policies guaranteeing uninterrupted treatment for this class of people.

The United States has sent warning letters to 15 prominent Kenyans it says are blocking reform in east Africa's biggest economy following last year's post-election violence, the U.S. ambassador has said. Michael Ranneberger, the U.S. envoy to Kenya, declined to name the individuals. But he said they included sitting government ministers, members of parliament and other senior officials on both sides of the country's coalition government.

The UK government should not rely on unreliable "diplomatic assurances" against torture to deport national security suspects to Ethiopia, Human Rights Watch has said in a letter to the UK government. In December 2008, the United Kingdom and Ethiopia signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU), similar to those the UK has signed with Jordan, Lebanon and Libya. Under these MoUs, the receiving governments provide "diplomatic assurances" that they will not mistreat persons whom the other country transfers to their territory.

African leaders are at the forefront of a landmark initiative to protect all those at risk from malaria with life-saving interventions by the end of 2010, the United Nations Envoy for efforts to defeat the deadly disease says. The African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA) is tasked with ensuring that more than 240 million insecticide-treated bed nets are distributed throughout malaria-endemic countries on the continent by the end of 2010, with the aim of ending unnecessary deaths from the disease by 2015.

The drought crisis in war-torn Somalia is turning increasingly acute and spreading to regions previously spared, with half the country’s 7 million people in need of aid, an increasing risk of deaths, and insufficient international donor response, a senior United Nations official has said.“Somalia needs to be seen as a priority case,” UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Mark Bowden told a news briefing in New York.

Several health-related budget decisions taken in the past financial year violated the Constitution, the National Health Act, the Public Finance Management Act and the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act. This is according to a group of activists, researchers, unionists, health workers and academics who have written letters to the ministers of health and finance, expressing grave concern over budgeting practices within the public health system and the dire effect it is shaving on HIV/AIDS, including the antiretroviral (ARV) treatment and prevention of mother-to-child transmission programmes.

The second half of 2008 saw unfold one of the most significant financial crises in history that started in the United States and then spread to Europe, Asia and the rest of the world. The response was just as historic. To stave off regional and global recessions and restore stability and confidence in the market, northern governments are pursuing a massive and unprecedented program of government intervention, nationalizing banks, injecting massive subsidies into ailing institutions and re-regulating their financial sectors.

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation against Torture (OMCT), expresses its deepest concerns following the accusations against human rights organisations voiced by Dr. Abdel Aziz Hegazi, Chairperson of the General Federation of Civil Associations, an institution likely to become the prime means for the Executive to regulate NGOs in Egypt.

A film, set to be released on the 7 April 2010, has brought the topic of homosexuality back in the agenda in Tunisia. The first feature film by Tunisia’s Mehdi ben Attia titled “Le Fil”, tackles the issue of homosexuality between men within a male chauvinistic society where men are supposed to be men and ancient traditions still rule. Entirely shot in Tunisia, “Le Fil” was presented under the Tunisian National Selection, during the Festival du Film Francophone d’Angouleme (South West of France), on 26 to the 30 August 2009.

Large-scale tree planting on agricultural land can save those primary forests, agroforestry experts argue. But the new plantations are detrimental to biodiversity and indigenous people, critics respond. Professor P K Nair, director of the Centre of Subtropical Agroforestry at the University of Florida, believes planting trees on farmland is the way to conserve what's left of the world's rainforests.

The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) on Friday 11 September 2009 released a report on housing rights violations in the context of the N2 Gateway development project in South Africa. The report is based on research conducted by COHRE during a fact finding mission to South Africa in 2008 and its amicus curiae (‘friend of the court’) submission to the South African Constitutional Court in the recently decided "Joe Slovo" case (Residents of Joe Slovo Community, Western Cape v Thubelisha Homes & Others, CCT 22/08[2009] ZACC 16).

Hundreds of serious cases of violence against women were recorded in Mauritania between 2007 and 2009, the Chairperson of the Association to fight Against Dependence (ALCD-RIHAB), Mrs. Fatimetou Mint Ahmed Jiddou, has disclosed.

Police in Zimbabwe battled rioters in Bulawayo as members of the leading pressure group, Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), continued marking the United Nations 'International Day of Peace' with street protests. As the protesters took to the streets, marching and chanting slogans, Zimbabwe's riot police reportedly chased them with the aim of dispersing them.

Gay activists in South Africa have welcomed the life sentence handed down to a man for the killing and gang rape of lesbian football star Eudy Simelane. Ms Simelane was one of the first women to live openly as a lesbian in KwaThema township near Johannesburg.

On September 20, 2009 at about 6.52 a.m local time, Mr. Bayo Ohu, an assistant news editor with the private daily, The Guardian newspapers was gruesomely murdered in his home in Egbeda, a Lagos suburb by a gang of about six men who riddled his body with bullets. The assassins took away his laptop and mobile phone. No other flat or house in the area was attacked.

Over 4,000 people gathered in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on Tuesday to attend the launch of Amnesty International's campaign to end maternal mortality in the country. Amnesty International's Secretary General, Irene Khan, told the assembled crow that having a baby should be a very happy occasion, “but, in so many houses it becomes a very sad occasion.

The Gambian leader, President Yayha Jammeh has vowed to enforce death penalty so as to prevent or discourage escalating rate of murder incidents in the country. “The death penalty is there to ensure that nobody kills anybody. We are going to implement the death penalty to the letter”. If you kill and the law says you must die, you will die,” President Jammeh said.

The report, titled “Media Freedom Kept within Bounds”, unearths evidence-based information from journalists and media managers who recounted unrestrained and vituperative attacks on journalists and media houses. The media professionals signify that Somaliland authorities are responsible for outrages and structural suppression against media.

Taelo Motseki had every reason to wear a broad smile despite the afternoon chill. His family along with 21 others displaced by Phase 1B of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project at Ha Mohale had won a decade-long struggle seeking compensation. On Sep 8, the Ombudsman, Sekara Mafisa, reversed and earlier decision and ruled in their favour, ending what had become a source of both frustration and anger for the 22 households now resettled at Ha Matala, in Lesotho's capital, Maseru.