Zambia President Michael Sata has with immediate effect suspended Justices Philip Musonda, Charles Kajimanga and Nigel Mutuna. The President has since appointed a tribunal which will be headed by Justice Lovemore Chipoka of the Malawi High Court to investigate the alleged misbehavior of the three Judges. The terms of reference would be based on the allegations that the trio interfered with a case involving the Post newspapers, Development Bank of Zambia (DBZ and JNC holding limited and Mutembo Nchito.

Farm Radio Weekly has a story about Michael Gitau, one of 5,000 members of the Central Organic Farmers and Consumer Organization who has been growing organically for six years. He is happy that he now makes double the income he used to as a conventional farmer. In a second story, Selinah Mncwango from South Africa is a farmer who treasures the seeds that have been handed down to her from generation to generation. But she worries that the South African government is taking steps which may deprive her and other South African farmers of their seed heritage.

The Globe and Mail has an article about Bill Gates and his advocacy of technology in the agriculture sector. 'Relying on genetically modified (GM) crops and chemicals to push up output per acre may help Monsanto (which was one of the stocks in the Gates Foundation’s investment portfolio), Syngenta and other tech-driven food biggies, but won’t necessarily support those who need the most help-poor smallholder farmers and underdeveloped countries. Making them part of Big Ag’s global supply chain might not help either.'

Ghana has become the first country in Africa to start protecting children against two of the continent's deadliest infant diseases with simultaneous vaccinations. The diseases targeted are rotavirus, which causes diarrhoea, and pneumococcal, both of which kill more than 2.7 million children worldwide each year. The project is backed by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation.

President Alassane Ouattara of Côte d’Ivoire promised paved roads, an end to power cuts and water shortages, better mobile phone coverage, and a new university in the country’s west as part of an 'emergency plan' to develop a region that has been steeped in violence and insecurity for a decade. But for some displaced Ivoirians still unable to return to their homes, the promises ring hollow.

Malawi will devalue its currency, the kwacha, by 40 per cent to unlock blocked aid by meeting conditions set by the International Monetary Fund, President Joyce Banda said. The government has resumed relations with the UK and held talks with the IMF, World Bank and U.S. after the death of Bingu wa Mutharika, the leader who clashed with western donors, Banda said. She was sworn-in as president of the southern African nation this month after Mutharika died of a heart attack on April 5.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) will continue its fight against the e-tolling project until the tolls have 'finally been scrapped', the union federation said. Spokesperson Patrick Craven said in the federation's Workers' Day statement that the postponement of the R20-billion e-toll project was 'a direct product of the workers' power and sacrifices'.

An Egyptian doctor volunteering at one of the makeshift hospitals in the Abbassiya district of Cairo assisting the wounded on Wednesday told the al-Dostour newspaper that at least 15 people have been killed in violent clashes that erupted massively on Wednesday morning. According to activists, 'army sponsored thugs' attacked the demonstrators near the ministry of defense on early Wednesday morning, firing live ammunition, Molotov cocktails and rocks at the unarmed protesters.

Togolese students arrested on 28 March and 3 April, following demonstrations at the University of Kara, have been released. Students Agnité Massama, Bitsioudi Birénam and Sidiba Mohamed who were arrested on 28 March at the University of Kara, have been released. They are members of the National Union of Pupils and Students of Togo (Union nationale des élèves et étudiants du Togo). A fourth student, Alinki M’claw, was arrested on 3 April and was also released. They had been charged with 'incitement to revolt' (incitation à la révolte) after they organized a general assembly to discuss the government's failure to honour its promise to grant benefits to support students, and scholarships on the basis of merit.

A grenade attack in a Nairobi church has killed one person and injured at least 15 others, police in the Kenyan capital say. Moses Ombati, the deputy police chief for Nairobi, confirmed the number of killed and injured. Charles Owino, deputy spokesman for the Kenyan police, said the grenade was thrown into the God's House of Miracle Church in the capital's Ngara neighbourhood.

The junta in Guinea Bissau has 'unconditionally' released the two leaders seized nearly three weeks ago, state media said Saturday. The two men include the interim President Raimundo Pareira and the former Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior. Both men have since been flown to the Ivorian capital, Abidjan.

In Malawi, like most other countries in the region with the exception of South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe, more than 60 per cent of land is customary, meaning that it is mostly untitled and administered by local chiefs on behalf of the government, with local communities merely enjoying user rights. The system has led to many abuses, with some government officials and chiefs selling off customary lands and dispossessing smallholder farmers who are already competing for dwindling arable land as Malawi’s population increases.

Kenya Palestinian Solidarity Committee supports the freedom struggle and the consequent establishment of a democratic secular state in the entire land of pre-l948 Palestine where Muslims, Christians and Jews choose to live together in political equality, justice and prosperity for all.
They provide solidarity and link with local and international solidarity committees to create awareness of the struggles in the cultural, social, economic and political spheres in occupied Palestine through acitivities like information sharing, education campaigns, film festivals and public fora. They produce regular enewsletters on Palestine from Kenya and is an example of the solidarity coming from African countries. Visit or

Two days of rioting over pay by workers from African Minerals' Sierra Leone mine left one woman dead and at least six injured in April, witnesses and medical staff said. African Minerals made its first trial shipment of ore from Tonkolili mine in November last year. Shipments from the mine are due to help Sierra Leone to what the IMF estimates at 35.9 per cent growth this year, one of the highest rates in the world.

Two trade unionists in Swaziland were arrested and beaten by police at a May Day rally. They were arrested because they were holding a banner with markings of the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA), a labour organisation that is not recognised by the Swazi Government.

In March, 44 countries called on the Government of Eritrea to end its use of arbitrary detention and torture of its citizens. Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Human Rights Concern - Eritrea and the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project welcomed this long overdue attention paid to the widespread and systematic human rights violations continuing in Eritrea for over a decade. In a statement to the UN Human Rights Council, states from Africa, Asia, Caribbean, Europe, Latin America and North America expressed their concerns about the government’s refusal to hold national elections or allow opposition parties, independent media or international non-governmental organisations to operate.

Madagascan security forces Saturday fired tear-gas to disperse a crowd of opposition supporters who attempted to gather in the capital Antananarivo. The meeting had been organised by deposed President Marc Ravalomanana allies to discuss development issues. About three people were arrested and about forty injured during the fracas.

A top Moroccan newspaper editor, convicted and jailed under the penal code for his writings, has been freed after serving a year in prison. 'I denounce my imprisonment and conviction under the penal code, and I hope I am the last journalist to be tried under it,' said Rachid Nini, editor of the country's most popular daily, al-Massae, on Saturday.

Only a fraction of the millions of people worldwide with blood and autoimmune disorders survive - especially those in poorer countries - partly due to the lack of bone marrow stem cell transplants. A recently established Nigerian bone marrow registry hopes to boost matches between donors and patients, and survival chances. Some 200,000 babies are born annually in sub-Saharan Africa with sickle cell disease, a blood disorder in which mutated red blood cells can clump and block blood vessels, causing pain, infection and organ damage. Nigeria has up to two million sickle cell patients, many of whom can benefit from stem cell transplants.

Sudan has declared a state of emergency in areas bordering South Sudan, giving authorities wide powers of arrest a day after they detained three foreigners in a flashpoint town along the frontier. The detentions and Sunday's state of emergency declaration heightened tensions even further along the border between the old rivals, who in the past month came to the brink of an all-out war because of renewed fighting in disputed areas.