On 14 July 2009, freelance photojournalist Andrisson Manyere and 15 members of the Movement for Democratic Change-T (MDC-T) filed a lawsuit with the High Court demanding compensation in the amount of US$19.2 million from the Co-Ministers of Home Affairs and State Security agents, following their alleged abduction, unlawful detention and deprivation of liberty.

South Africa's government has vowed to crack down on riots in townships where residents are demanding better basic services, such as water and housing. "We are not going to allow anybody to use illegal means to achieve their objective," a local government minister said on South African radio.

Genetically modified (GMO) crops have more unknowns than knowns. Yet the South African government whole-heartily embraces this technology in the production of food crops, particularly maize, a staple food in South Africa. The South African pro-GMO lobby is very proud of the fact that South Africa is the eighth biggest GMO producer in the world among the 13 largest biotechnology-producing countries. They also make claims that this technology is accepted worldwide, however many African countries have put a ban on GMO foods and in Europe, countries like Switzerland have put moratorium on GMOs.

Thousands of Congolese have been uprooted by the latest escalation of fighting in the South Kivu province of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Our initial estimates show that at least 35,000 people have been displaced in the Ruzizi River plain where the DRC borders neighbouring Rwanda and Burundi. These people have reportedly fled in the wake of the latest government military campaign code-named Kimia II, which began on 12 July in the Uvira territory of South Kivu.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) will be sending text messages to millions of Zambian parents this week as part of a new initiative to harness modern technology in the fight to prevent polio. UNICEF has joined forces with the Zambian Health Ministry and two mobile phone companies, ZAIN and MTN, to encourage parents to bring their children under the age of five to the nearest health-care centre for free polio vaccinations.

More than ten Cape Flats informal settlements hardest hit by floods did not receive any emergency assistance at all from the City of Cape Town or the Provincial Government. These include Tambo Square, Barcelona, New Rest and Gxa Gxa Square in the Gugulethu area. In addition to this, the city continues to ignore the plight of vulnerable backyard dwellers whose homes have been flooded.

Late initiation of antiretroviral treatment following diagnosis is contributing to the continuing high death rate among people who present with low CD4 counts in eight sub-Saharan African countries.

A year ago, a mother in Kashari County took the law into her own hands and castrated a man she caught raping her seven-year-old daughter. Malita Kyomugisha returned from her farm and found her neighbor Tito Mugarura sexually assaulting her youngest daughter behind her house in Rugyerera village.

In April 2009 the international NGO Transgender Europe (TGEU) in cooperation with the multilingual Online-Magazine “Liminalis - A Journal for Sex/Gender Emancipation and Resistance” started a new project, the Trans Murder Monitoring Project, which focuses on systematically reporting murdered trans people on a worldwide scale.

One in four families living in the world’s poorest countries borrows money or sells assets in order to afford health care, according to the most recent issue of the US medical journal "Health Affairs". he authors calculated almost 26 percent of households representing 3.6 billion people – most often the poorest with little or no health insurance – used "hardship financing" from 2002 to 2004 to cover health costs.

The minister of information and broadcasting services, Lieutenant General Ronnie Shikapwasha, confirmed on 16 July 2009 that the freedom of information (FOI) bill will not be tabled before the current parliamentary session. He instead stated that the bill would possibly be introduced in the next parliamentary session. Responding to queries from journalists in Lusaka, Shikapwasha noted that the government is still making consultations on the bill in different countries, such as the United Kingdom.

A week after giving birth to her sixth child, Christine Achan walked 60 km (37 miles) from her village in northern Uganda to get life-saving anti-retroviral drugs to stop her and her baby becoming sick with Aids. Doctors say it is villagers like her that the results of Africa's largest and longest running clinical test, the Dart trial, should help.

The Plateau State Judicial Commission of Inquiry in Nigeria should investigate and call for the prosecution of members of the security forces responsible for the alleged killing of more than 130 people in November 2008, Human Rights Watch has said.

Up to 200 people from an informal settlement in the Harare suburb of Gunhill in Zimbabwe face being forcibly evicted without being given adequate notice or any consultation or due process. Thousands of vendors across Harare also face forcible removal from their market stalls. The majority of those to be affected are poor women whose principal source of livelihood is selling fruits, vegetables and other wares at market stalls like Mbare Musika and Mupedzanhamo in Harare.

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has called for an end to political violence and committed his party to campaigning peacefully as the country marked the start of a national reconciliation process. The southern African country was plunged into violence last year as Mugabe fought to reclaim power in a run-off vote after being defeated by Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai, now prime minister in a new unity government.

A programme to train students in technical institutions to repair and service computers has been launched by the Ghana Education Service in Accra. The Computer System Support Programme (CSSP) is a two-year pilot programme which will commence in September this year and initially run as a technical institute for senior high school students who offer science programmes.

The UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women is a global source of support for country and local-level action to end violence against women and girls established by the General Assembly. Due to the global economic and financial crisis, the Fund is facing a dramatic shortfall in donor contributions.

In December 2008, a group of young women staged a protest against the common practice of fattening women before marriage, intended to make them more attractive in the eyes of men. The protest did not immediately result in the end of the practice, but it was a landmark event showing a new assertiveness among Mauritanian women in a society where men use tradition and sharia law to maintain their dominance.

As health institutions are stepping up to fight HIV prevalence among the gay community Women who have Sex with Women (WSW) seem to be shut out. This is a group which, according to Nomvuyo Dlamini of Durban Lesbian and Gay Community and Health Care Centre, is less researched but also faces sexual health problems. Dlamini says the WSW are generally not regarded as being at a high risk of HIV “but they are.”

Providing male circumcision as an HIV prevention measure in Zimbabwe's state hospitals is off to a very slow start, and experts cite the country's crippled health sector as the main reason for the delay. Although about 140 circumcisions were successfully performed at four hospitals as part of a training exercise, health officials told IRIN/PlusNews the government was not yet ready to roll out the programme.