The final draft constitution, earmarked to replace the Lancaster House Constitution, will criminalise homosexuality and ban same-sex marriages according to the views of the majority of Zimbabweans, it has emerged. In an interview, Constitution Select Committee (Copac) co-chair Mr Edward Mkhosi (MDC) said Zimbabwe had unequivocally affirmed that homosexuality should be outlawed. 'During the outreach programme, everyone said ‘no’ to gays and lesbians and, as the drafters, we heed what people say,” he said. “Contrary to media reports that the homosexuality issue was causing infighting, the people were clear; we did not waste time on it.'

Sala Aminata, a housewife from Logone and Shari Division in Cameroon’s Far North Region, looks at her six kids with apprehension as she tries to figure out how to feed them with her meagre salary. Rising food prices come after a drought late last year destroyed the majority of the harvest in the Sahel – the arid zone between the Sahara desert in North Africa and Sudan’s Savannas in the south. Rural populations throughout the region have started to run out of food since early February, six months before the next harvest is expected. And all governments in the Sahel, except for Senegal, have appealed for international assistance as 12 million people in the region are threatened by hunger.

State prosecutors in Beitbridge recently refused to handle a case involving MDC-T officials, who were arrested over the weekend for attending a party workshop. The prosecutors said the case was ‘too sensitive’ to handle, but our correspondent in Bulawayo told us they feared the powerful co-Home Affairs Minister and local MP Kembo Mohadi.

The Horn of Africa is one of the least connected regions in the world. Nevertheless, digital media play an important social and political role in Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia (including South-Central Somalia and the northern self-declared independent Republic of Somaliland). This paper published by the Open Society Foundation shows how the development of the internet, mobile phones, and other new communication technologies have been shaped by conflict and power struggles in these countries.

The challenges facing Haiti are discussed in this Q&A with Ambassador Rodolfo Mattarollo, Special Representative of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) Technical Secretariat in Haiti, who was interviewed by Claudia Florentin, the Spanish Editor of the Latin America and Caribbean Communication Agency (ALC).

A lawyer for an opponent of Malawi's president says his client is no longer being watched by police at the hospital where he is being treated for heart problems. Opposition and church leaders in Malawi had joined international human rights organisations in criticizing Ralph Kasambara's treatment. Kasambara was arrested 13 February, accused of kidnapping and torturing three men he told reporters had confessed they had been sent by the government to firebomb his office. The government denies Kasambara's accusations. Kasambara denies the charges against him.

Human Rights Network for Journalists-Uganda (HRNJ-Uganda) is shocked by the Uganda government's rejection of recommendations made to it during the Universal Periodic Review Mechanism (UPRM) to admit the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression to visit the country and assess the human rights situation. UPRM is a brainchild of the United Nations Human Rights Council whose intention is to assess the human rights situation of its respective member countries. HRNJ-Uganda has learnt that an Inter-ministerial meeting held on 23 February 2012 in Kampala and chaired by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected 21 recommendations out of 42 which had been reserved by the same government during the October 2011 Geneva review.

Mari Monique was pregnant when they pooled all of their savings to join one of the first emigrant groups that opened a gruelling route in search of Brazil’s economic growth promise. The same path has now been trodden by more than 4,000 fellow Haitians. The route begins in the neighbouring Dominican Republic, where emigrants embark on a plane that takes them to Panama. Continuing by bus and on foot, the groups make their way through Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and sometimes Bolivia before finally reaching the Amazon border – still a week by boat from the nearest big city. The entire journey can take up to two months, depending on the traveller’s ability to find their way through Spanish-speaking countries, and can cost as much as $3,000.

Egyptian researchers claim to have found a cheap, easy method for detecting and clearing landmines, using plants and bacteria. The three-stage process for deactivating anti-personnel mines - landmines designed for use against humans - first detects the mine before corroding its cast-iron body and, finally, neutralising it.

The former governor of Delta state has pleaded guilty in a British court to laundering millions of dollars in a rare case of a Nigerian politician being held to account for corruption. James Ibori, a former governor of the oil-rich state, pleaded guilty on Monday to 10 counts of money-laundering and conspiracy to defraud. He pleaded not guilty to a further 13 similar charges. Sentencing will take place in April.

In keeping with Western medicine’s approach to illness, the international community’s anti-corruption strategies treat the symptom of corruption rather than the cause; seeking to stifle the outcomes of a flawed system rather than rightfully treating it as the disease itself, concludes this article from the Peace and Conflict Monitor. 'The most significant conclusions relate to a re-conceptualization of our understanding of the corruption-causes-poverty narrative by calling for a re-moralization of the corruption debate within the larger systemic context of the neoliberal world order. '

An international petition launched three days ago calling for the international business community to protest Uganda’s notorious anti-gay bill has garnered the support of over 190,000 people worldwide. The more than 190,000 people have signed the petition to join a campaign on the Change.org website launched three days ago by Collin Burton, a gay Citibank customer from Washington, DC.

Hundreds of Tunisians in the capital and the wilaya of Sfax took to the streets recently to demand that the interim government shoulder its responsibility for the rising price of basic goods. 'I can no longer provide for what my family of eight needs,' Mondher Welhazi, 56, told Magharebia. He added, 'All the prices of basic materials in terms of vegetables and meat rose after the revolution in a frightening, alarming way. I am embarrassed before my children as I can no longer bring them what they want.'

Media and Information Minister Webster Shamu now has days to meet an ultimatum to implement key media reforms, which could usher in some long awaited freedom in Zimbabwe’s media space. he ZANU PF Minister has been ordered to reconstitute the boards of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe and the Mass Media Trust.
Shamu was given the ultimatum after a meeting of the principals in the unity government.

In 'Corporate War Crimes', law professor James G. Stewart offers a roadmap of the law governing pillage as applied to the illegal exploitation of natural resources by corporations and their officers. The text traces the evolution of the prohibition against pillage from its earliest forms through the Nuremburg trials to today’s national laws and international treaties. In doing so, Stewart provides a long-awaited blueprint for prosecuting corporate plunder during war.

The Human Rights Commission (HRC) will speak against the discrimination of people on the basis of sexual orientation, chairperson Pixie Yangailo has said. Reacting to comments made by a section of Zambians after United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-Moon called for respect for sexual orientation, Ms Yangailo stressed that the Commission will oppose discrimination based on sexual orientation. Mr Ban, who is visiting Zambia, said on Saturday that no one should be stigmatised or discriminated against on the basis of their sexual orientation.

A renewed offensive against Al-Shabab insurgents by Somali government forces, backed by Ethiopian, Kenyan and African Union troops, has sparked another influx of civilians to the capital Mogadishu, locals told IRIN. 'Since 18 February, we estimate that between 10,000 and 11,000 families [60,000-66,000 people] have arrived in Mogadishu, fleeing fighting or the fear of fighting in their home areas,' said Abdullahi Shirwa, head of the government's National Disaster Management Agency.

Very few countries prevent ordinary citizens from wandering around filming or journalists from doing their jobs without the permission and control of the authorities. Zimbabwe is on a short distinguished list of nations that includes Yemen, Sudan, China, and North Korea. That's not the only abnormality in Zimbabwe's media landscape. Little about it conforms to the way things are done across the globe - or to global or African standards, reports activist group Sokwanele.

Reporters Without Borders says it is stunned to learn that Abukar Hassan Mohamoud, the manager of Mogadishu-based radio Somaliweyn, was shot dead 28 February outside his home in the capital’s Aargada district by men armed with pistols. The press freedom organisation condemns his cold-blooded murder, which joins a long list of crimes of violence against journalists in Somalia, and reiterates its call to the international community to do everything possible to ensure that these killings do not go unpunished.

The world’s rapid urbanisation means hundreds of millions of children are not getting even their most basic needs met, the United Nations children agency (UNICEF) warns in a report. Children in slums and poor urban communities lack access to clean water, sanitation and education, as services struggle to keep up with fast urban growth, says the aid agency’s flagship State of the World’s Children report which this year focuses on urban poverty.