Africa News Update
Africa News Update offers news, background and feature articles from African sources twice weekly. The newsletter is free of charge and is edited by the Norwegian Council for Africa. Some of the articles may be shortened.
Kenya: Abortion debate shows that womens' reproductive rights are still a long way off (analysis)
Nairobi (Kenya) — Kenyans are still euphoric over the referendum endorsing a progressive new constitution; but the heat generated by its opponents around their main rallying point - abortion rights - is a reminder of the wide gap between law and implementation in Africa, particularly when it concerns women's rights. Read >
Monday, 23 August 2010
Inter Press Service (IPS), by Susan Anyangu-Amu
Nigeria: Police abuses rife despite anti-corruption efforts
Dakar (Senegal) - Successive governments have sought to reform the police and set up anti-corruption commissions, but members of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) continue to extort and embezzle money from citizens, and commit arbitrary arrests, torture and extra-judicial killings, says Human Rights Watch (HRW). Read >
Monday, 23 August 2010
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN)
South Africa: Fears for press freedom
Johannesburg (South Africa) — International media freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders ranks South Africa's press as among the freest on the continent. Two proposed new measures are drawing unfavourable comparisons to repressive laws in Zimbabwe and Ethiopia. Read >
Monday, 23 August 2010
Inter Press Service (IPS)
South Africa: Government has 'no choice' but to implement wage offer
Johannesburg (South Africa) - The government on Thursday said it would have little choice to unilaterally implement its final offer of a 7% wage increase for public servants, dismissing demands for 8,6% as simply not affordable. Read >
Thursday, 19 August 2010
Mail and Guardian (South Africa)
South Africa: Strike turns nasty as protestors surround hospitals
Johannesburg (South Africa) — After a day that saw Natalspruit Hospital virtually shut down by strikers, Thursday's action has already effectively shut a number of medical facilities while armed strikers chased learners through a KwaZulu-Natal town Read >
Thursday, 19 August 2010
Business Day (South Africa)
Tanzania: Obama lauds Tanzania for successful Zanzibar vote
Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) - US President Barack Obama has commended Tanzania following the successful holding of the referendum that will pave way for the formation of a government of national unity in Zanzibar. Read >
Thursday, 19 August 2010
The Citizen (Tanzania)
Southern Africa: A customs union to prevent failed states
Mbabane (Swaziland) — Increasing strains on a century-old, five-nation southern African customs union is raising questions as to whether the sovereignty of its poorest members - Lesotho and Swaziland - is sustainable, considering their burden of HIV/AIDS and the global economic slowdown, among other factors. Read >
Thursday, 19 August 2010
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN)
Ghana: Purge the judiciary of corrupt members, ruling party urges Chief Justice
Accra (Ghana) - The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has taken a swipe at the country's judiciary and called on the Chief Justice to take immediate steps to purge the bench of what it termed "corrupt and politically biased members". Read >
Thursday, 19 August 2010
Accra Daily Mail (Ghana)
Kenya: Obama aunt's US asylum - "an insult to Kenyans"
Nairobi (Kenya) — An aunt of President Barack Obama was allowed to stay in the United States on the shocking grounds that she would be persecuted by Kenyan leaders if she was forced to return to the country. Read >
Thursday, 19 August 2010
The Nation (Kenya)