Health officials in Tanzania's semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar predict a drastic drop in the number of malaria cases on the island after a successful mosquito control campaign. The manager of Zanzibar's Malaria Control Programme (ZMCP), Abdallah Suleiman, said on Friday the island had met the 90-percent coverage of the area targeted for residual spraying in the 54-day programme.

The Cape Town Anti-War Coalition firstly calls on the SA Department of Trade and Industry to explain why its website says it is supplying helicopter and aeroplane parts to Israel, while Cabinet ministers keep claiming that there is no weapons trade with Israel.

Follow the link for a message in solidarity with communities in the Niger Delta region, submitted at a public forum organised by ERA in collaboration with TWN Africa.

This paper focuses on the situation of teachers, the problems they face and the detrimental effect these problems are having on children's ability to complete a good quality education. As well as setting out the problems faced by teachers, education managers and governments in poor countries, the paper also collects together a range of solutions to the problems highlighted.

The South African NGO sector is gathering momentum to petition the South African government to adopt free and open source software. The petition, to be sent to Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, the minister of public service and administration, calls on government to reduce the country's dependence on software imports.

The South African National Editors' Forum (Sanef) is planning public protests to stop the controversial Film and Publications Amendment Bill from going ahead. "It's the bill that should be banned, not the media," said Sanef chairperson Ferial Haffajee in a statement released after the organisation met in Grahamstown.

In the next few days IRIN will be releasing the latest of its short documentary films and we are requesting subscribers to notify us if you wish to receive a copy.

Advocacy groups in Zambia are forcing HIV/AIDS issues onto the agenda in the run-up to this month's general election. "All election candidates should make clear their personal commitment to tackling HIV and AIDS because we want Zambian politicians to take a leading role in fighting the HIV/AIDS pandemic. We want them to tell us what they will do about the pandemic if we elect them to office, because they should recognise that HIV is as much an election issue as a better economy or improved education."

Within the Global Labour University network, a cooperation between the International Labour Movement, academic institutions, foundations and the ILO two Master programmes on Labour and Globalization for trade unionists are offered in 2007. The duration of the programmes is one year.

"We, South African civil society, petition you and our Government to adopt Free and Open Source software and open content wherever possible. As a developing country, South Africa, along with all the countries on the African continent, needs you and our Government to act as agents of positive change in our society and trigger shifts in the information and communications technology market dynamics."

This book has been titled Labour Pains to reflect the intensity of the struggle for gender equality in the trade union movement and society. Women in labour carry the double burden of paid work and unpaid work in the home. Black working class women are oppressed as black people, as women and as workers. They also face a ‘struggle within the struggle’ as they are forced to confront sexism in their won unions as well as in the workplace and at home.

Security operatives in an early morning operation, yesterday, raided the Asokoro District, Abuja office of the National Development Project (NDP), the political resource centre of Vice President Atiku Abubakar, seizing an American information technology (IT) expert there. He was, however, released a few hours later.

Action for Development (ACFODE), a gender advocacy development organization that seeks to promote women’s empowerment, gender equality and equity in Uganda is looking for an Economic Policy Advocacy Officer.

This report discusses the extent to which children work in cocoa production, and in what parts of the production process they are involved. The authors analyse the involvement of children in the production of cocoa in Cote D'Iviore and Ghana with the aim of providing a basis for improved understanding of the situation for cocoa farmers and the children working in this sector.

A five district study conducted last year in Uganda revealed staggering levels of violence against children -- at home, school and in the community. The new media campaign uses radio, television and newspaper to open up the issue of violence against children and get people talking!

Malawi will be hosting the 3rd edition of the Southern Africa Social Forum 2006 in Lilongwe, Malawi from 13-15 October 2006.This year's SASF is expected to bring together thousands of participants from community-based groups, social movements and civil society organizations from SADC under the theme, 'People's Solidarity against Poverty and Oppression'.

According to a 2003 ILO study covering 1,500 cocoa producers in Côte d’Ivoire, there are over 5,000 children working in the country’s cocoa plantations. These children may or may not be paid and are not receiving any form of education. Most come from the neighbouring countries and are victims of the child trafficking rackets organised with Burkina Faso, Benin and Mali.

In one of the biggest demonstrations seen in Swaziland in years, HIV-positive people marched on the offices of the prime minister and the national AIDS council this week to protest an "insulting" new media campaign. The project by the National Emergency Response Council on HIV/AIDS (NERCHA) seems to suggest that HIV is caused by sexual infidelity. It was launched last month without consulting people living with the virus.

Following the success of the launch of its internet freedom campaign in the UK, Amnesty International is today going global with irrepressible.info. The campaign aims to claim back the web as a force for change in the face of an increasing willingness on the part of technology companies to aid censorship and repression.

Zimbabwe CSOs (Sustainability Watch Network) has launched an e-newsletter aimed at sharing information and initiating discussions and creating debate on MDGs monitoring efforts by Civil Society in Zimbabwe. The monitoring is based on the Government's implementation of MDGs. The unique newsletter will be used as a tool for advocacy on MDGs by Zimbabwean CSOs interested in MDGs work.