Despite longstanding laws against gas flaring - the burning of natural gas during oil extraction - in Nigeria, and shifting deadlines to end the practice, the activity continues, with serious health consequences for people living nearby. In the Niger Delta, where most of the flaring takes places, residents living near gas flares complain of respiratory problems, skin rashes and eye irritations, as well as damage to agriculture due to acid rain.

In line with calls from the Global South for changes in the UN governance system, a survey report carried out in 2010 showed overwhelming support for changes in the mandates and functions of the UN agencies and for NGO and private sector representation in UN governance. The government respondents to the survey were also equally strongly in favour of both, and more so than the UN respondents. Download the report by clicking on the link provided. To participate in a 2012 survey report, please .

After a massive strike by trade union federation Cosatu on 7 March, Lukhona Mnguni writes for Umbilo that he would 'definitely be feeling uncomfortable politically' if he was President Jacob Zuma. He compares the strike to a similar one that took place in the lead-up to the ANC 2007 elective conference in Polokwane that toppled former president Thabo Mbeki and asks if there is a realignment of forces poised to dethrone Zuma come an ANC elective conference in Mangaung in December.

The country’s Ministry for Coordination of Environmental Affairs (MICOA), has canceled 146 investment projects in various economic activities because they failed to meet the requirements of the country’s environmental laws. The canceled proposals include the activities of some major Western firms. Permanent Secretary Samuel Xirinda told journalists that the 146 projects canceled because of environmental legislation strictures constituted a third of the 437 projects audited by the government in 2011.

The Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA) will be officially launched 10 - 13 March 2012. The new group is expected to discuss how to step up its campaign for democracy in the kingdom ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch. Major protests are expected in April and May this year. TUCOSWA, which will have about 50,000 members, is an amalgamation of the existing Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU) and Swaziland Federation of Labour (SFL). It is hoped that the new group will enable trade unionists in Swaziland to speak with a single voice.

Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe has asked the public protector to look into claims of corruption levelled against his partner, Gugu Mtshali - but he would do well to remember that this isn't the first time she has been linked to dodgy business dealings. This weekend, the Sunday Times reported that Mtshali had solicited a R104-million bribe to get government support for a South African company that tried to secure a R2-billion sanctions-busting deal with Iran.

As police and illegal vendors in Zimbabwe’s capital clash over licenses, others urge the government to address the underlying problems of unemployment and poverty. A federal government plan aims to address both, as the city government and residents association discuss a solution on the ground.

On 9 March, the Committee on Word Food Security (CFS) completed the intergovernmental negotiations of the FAO Voluntary Guidelines on the Tenure of Land Fisheries and Forests in the context of national food security. The guidelines contain valuable points that will provide backing to organizations in their long struggle to ensure the care and use of resources and natural goods in order to produce more nourishing food, so helping to eliminate hunger from the world by addressing its root causes, says this press release from a coalition of civil society organisations.

The need for the adoption of a West African regional legal framework on Freedom of Expression (FOE) and Right to Information (RTI) received a significant endorsement on 5 March 2012, when Nigeria’s Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke, urged his colleagues from ECOWAS member countries to work towards bequeathing such a legal framework for the regional group, ECOWAS.

Senegal's opposition joined forces Sunday in a mass rally to block 85-year-old President Abdoulaye Wade from landing a third term in office and back challenger Macky Sall. The 12 presidential candidates who fell out of the running in a first round of voting on 26 February have formed a coalition they hope will usher ex-prime minister Sall into power. Wade is facing a stiff battle to retain power at the March 25 poll after a strong opposition showing crushed his hopes of overall victory in the first round and forced him into a run-off.

A cholera outbreak in Uganda that has claimed eight lives among 280 cases since 14 February could escalate as predicted heavy rains are likely to lead to flooding, the Health Minister warned. In an alert issued in the capital, Kampala, on 7 March, Denis Lwamafa, commissioner for non-communicable diseases, said 280 cases had been recorded in the western Ugandan districts of Kasese, Buliisa, and eastern districts of Mbale, Bududa and Sironko. Others affected are Pallisa, Butaleja and Manafa districts.

In its first month of existence, Corruption Watch received 500 complaints from the public, the organisation has said. Complaints about municipalities, traffic officers and the health sector featured the most prominently, according to a statement. Corruption Watch was started as a non-profit organisation by the Congress of SA Trade Unions in January.

This year has already seen the largest-ever strike on record in India, hundreds of thousands marching for democracy in Bahrain, general strikes in Montreal and Spain where students once again occupied public space in protest of the austerity measures and spending cuts being enforced by the European banking elite, massive uprisings in the streets of Moscow, and more. Even in the United States, the movement grows. The corporate media claims that Occupy's strength is waning, but they are merely in denial. During the coldest months of this year, the United States has already seen more revolutionary momentum than it has in decades.

On the morning of 12 March, 20 computers were seized from the offices of the outspoken Folha 8, one of Angola’s few remaining private publications that is critical of the government, under a warrant investigating 'crimes of outrage against the state' and violations of press freedom. The effective shut-down of the paper and the questioning of its editor, William Tonet, whose mobile phone battery was also confiscated, comes just 48 hours after attempts by Angolan youths to stage demonstrations in the capital Luanda and southern coastal city of Benguela. Heavily armed police broke up the crowds making several arrests.

The World Bank should never expect a wholesale acceptance of their programmes aimed at bailing the country out of the current economic mess as President Bingu wa Mutharika says he is not an 'idiot' to do that. 'The level [of the mission] is not even that of a minister but a principal secretary. So you want me to meet every Jim and Jack who comes from wherever at the expense of my job? I am not that cheap and I'm not for sale; I am the president.' On the bailout, Mutharika said the World Bank and other donors should align their programmes with the country's, otherwise he would not accept them at all.

More than 25,000 striking health workers on Friday (09 March) started receiving dismissal letters as retired nurses and interns applied for their jobs. This happened as some nurses in Western Kenya resumed work but their counterparts in other parts of the country vowed to continue with the strike or were split on the way forward.

In a small courtyard outside the National Council for the Care of Martyrs and Injured, people swarm around two barred windows with outstretched arms, thrusting paper work toward the front of the crowd. Over a year after the 25 January uprising, Egyptians injured in the course of the street action that toppled president Hosni Mubarak say they are still seeking funding for medical treatment and rehabilitation. Many of them come to the national council hoping for one of the 3,200 promised job opportunities. Others come to complain about invalid compensation checks or untreated injuries.

Israel is to begin construction soon on a vast detention facility in the Negev desert to house the thousands of immigrants that cross illegally into Israel from Egypt every year. Human rights groups fear that the detention centre, the largest of its kind in the world, with a capacity to hold 8,000 migrants, will turn into a festering refugee camp, and deprive those escaping persecution at home of their rights to seek asylum in Israel.

A woman journalist has gone into hiding in Liberia after receiving threats over an expose she published on female genital mutilation (FGM). Mae Azango, who reports for the local daily FrontPage Africa and the international news website New Narratives, went into hiding after her article was published last week in which she reported two out of three girls were victims of FGM in certain parts of the country.

A military court in Egypt has acquitted an army doctor accused of carrying out forced 'virginity tests' on women protesters, state media reports. Ahmed Adel was cleared because the judge found contradictions in witness statements, the state news agency said. The case was brought by one of the women, Samira Ibrahim, who said the 'tests' took place after they had been detained during protests last year. Demonstrators gathered outside the court to protest against the ruling.