DEVELOPMENT-KENYA: Tips For Revitalising NAM

Hundreds of journalists have converged on Havana for the fourteenth summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), while dozens of leaders are expected to be in attendance during the final days of the meeting. For some in Kenya, however, NAM remains a mystery - even though the East African country is a member of the movement.

DEATH PENALTY: Uganda Drafts Bill to Execute HIV Infectors

In 1999, an HIV-infected 30-year-old man named Fred Mwanga shocked the country when he raped a three-month-old baby in a Kampala suburb.

POLITICS-UGANDA: UN Official Takes the Temperature of the Peace Process

Efforts to bring peace to northern Uganda have been highlighted over recent days during a visit to Africa by the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Jan Egeland.

DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: “NAM Only Needs to Redefine Itself”

With countries in Africa accounting for almost half the membership of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), it could be argued that this continent has a particular interest in the future strategies and effectiveness of the grouping - now holding its fourteenth summit, in Cuba.

POLITICS-SOMALIA: Pressing Ahead With a Controversial Peace Keeping Mission

Is it, as one cabinet minister has claimed, a "welcome" troop deployment? Or is an analyst's description of the force as "suicidal" more accurate?

WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: What They’ll Talk About in 2007

With dozens, if not hundreds of organisations likely to attend next year's World Social Forum (WSF) - and almost as many issues clamouring to be addressed there - nailing down a programme for the Jan. 20-25 event promises to be a daunting task.

DEVELOPMENT: From “Survival or a Better Life”, to Survival and a Better Life

At the recent meeting of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) held in Cape Town, South Africa, the key word was "partnership".

SCIENCE: Excellence and Cooperation in the Developing South

High-quality scientific research is also carried out in the developing South, especially in response to problems specific to the Third World, and in a spirit of cooperation - all of which will be on display as of Saturday at a paradisiacal Brazilian beach resort.

DEATH PENALTY-RWANDA: Abolition Needed for ‘Integrating into International Justice’

Rwanda's minister of justice announced that the government will propose a law ending capital punishment in Rwanda by December 2006 to encourage European countries to extradite suspected masterminds of the genocide that occurred in the country in 1994.

HEALTH-KENYA: ‘Break the Silence on Abortion’

Local communities have been urged to act as agents of change and break the silence on illegal abortions fuelling Kenya's maternal mortality.

DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: Obama to the Rescue?

"Obama must come now; we need help," 75-year-old William Onyango told IPS about four months ago*, at his store in a remote, western village of Kenya. While the senator from the U.S. state of Illinois may not have arrived as quickly as Onyango was hoping, he is in Kenya now as part of an official tour that also encompasses South Africa, Djibouti and Chad.

POLITICS-DRC: Disillusion at Post-Election Clashes

An outbreak of hostilities in Kinshasa appeared to be drawing to an end, Wednesday, as United Nations officials and diplomats worked to restore calm to the Congolese capital in the run-up to a second round of presidential elections.

POLITICS-DRC: Now For Round Two

Three weeks after their landmark election of Jul. 30, citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo are bracing for another poll: the run-off vote between President Joseph Kabila and former rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba, that will decide who is to be the next head of state in this vast Central African nation.

POLITICS-KENYA: Constitution in the Spotlight Again, as Elections Near

The fraught process of constitutional review in Kenya marked another chapter this week, with an announcement by President Mwai Kibaki that there would be no partial reform of the constitution ahead of general elections next year.

RIGHTS-KENYA: Available for Serving Drinks – Not for Sex

When next in Nairobi, spare a thought for the women who will in all likelihood serve you, if you visit a bar or two in search of a drink.

MEDIA-AFRICA: “Threatened From Everywhere”

Concerns about restrictions on press freedom in Africa have surfaced again, this during a two-day conference held in Kenya that attracted over 100 media representatives from across the continent.

DEATH PENALTY: De Facto Moratorium Leaves 4,000 in Limbo

It's a penalty that has been put on ice for nearly two decades in Kenya. Nonetheless, capital punishment remains an option for judges handing down sentences in the East African country, high-level support for its abolition notwithstanding.

POLITICS-KENYA: Corrupt Officials May Escape Justice

This week's court ruling clearing former education minister George Saitoti of any wrongdoing in Kenya's Goldenberg scandal has raised fears that other key suspects may follow in Saitoti's footsteps and exonerate themselves from the scandal.

POLITICS-DRC: A Three-Week Countdown

Vote counting is underway in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which held landmark general elections Sunday.

POLITICS-SOMALIA: Condemnation, Assassination, Resignation

This weekend has seen Somali Prime Minister Mohammed Ali Gedi survive a no-confidence vote initiated by legislators who accuse his government of failing to bring order and reconciliation to the East African country. The vote capped a tumultuous week during which a cabinet member was assassinated and another parliamentarian shot, while eleven ministers resigned their posts according to a government spokesperson.

POLITICS-DRC: “An Opportunity for Congo’s Ordinary People to Express Themselves”

When voters in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) go to the polls Sunday, they will be participating in a general election for which the words "epic" and "historic" seem scarcely to do justice.