A French court has declared the US biotech giant Monsanto guilty of chemical poisoning of a French farmer, a judgment that could lend weight to other health claims against pesticides. In the first such case heard in court in France, the grain grower Paul Francois, 47, said he suffered neurological problems including memory loss, headaches and stammering after inhaling Monsanto's Lasso weedkiller in 2004. He blames Monsanto for not providing adequate warnings on the product label.

Egypt's first presidential elections since a popular uprising ousted veteran leader Hosni Mubarak a year ago will be held in the first week of June, officials were quoted as saying on Sunday. 'The election will start in the first days of June and will end in the last week of June if there is a run-off,' Ahmed Shams El-Din, a member of the presidential election committee told the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm. The head of the electoral committee Faruq Sultan told a press conference on Sunday that hopefuls can register for the election starting from March 10 to April 8.

An estimated six per cent of Kenyan couples - about 344,000 - are HIV discordant, while a further 22 per cent of couples know the HIV status of their sexual partners. Although Kenya has national guidelines for promoting prevention among people living with HIV, implementing them has proved to be a challenge. Dr Charles Okal, the AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) Coordinator for Nyanza Province says providing services for discordant couples is made difficult by the fact that testing is the only way to find them, yet couples rarely turn out for testing together.

Top United Nations officials say 10 million people need help amid a food crisis in West Africa's Sahel region. UN Development and Humanitarian chiefs Helen Clark and Valerie Amos called Saturday for greater humanitarian response to the crisis that effects eight countries, including Niger.

An alleged police hit squad exposed by the Sunday Times is being investigated for at least 51 suspicious murders - including one in its offices and another in its toilets. The body count is higher than initially thought - and 18 KwaZulu-Natal police officers are now suspects. They include two from the National Intervention Unit and 16 from the notorious Cato Manor Organised Crime Unit. The Sunday Times initially investigated seven cases involving the Cato Manor unit and 16 suspicious deaths.

Swaziland and Lesotho have the highest HIV prevalence in the world. They also share another distinct feature: during the last century, they sent a large numbers of migrant workers to South African mines. This paper examines whether participation in mining in a bordering country affects HIV infection rate.

Sixteen Tanzanian human rights defenders were arrested on 9 February. In protest against the Tanzanian authority's act that goes counter their state commitment to protect, respect and fulfill human rights, Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR) has drafted a letter urging the Tanzania authorities to release and drops all charges against these activists. They are requesting people to support the 16 activists by:
1. printing and delivering/posting the letter to the president's office in Dar-es-salaam if based in Dar-es-salaam or any part of Tanzania
2. printing and delivering the letter to the Tanzania embassy/consulate in your country if based outside Tanzania,
3. adapting the letter and putting it on your organisation's letter head, signing it and delivering it to the president office or the representative of Tanzania government in your country.

The Journal of Peace Research has published a special issue on climate change and conflict that constitutes the largest collection of peer-reviewed writings on the topic to date. The research covered in the journal includes:
- The publics' concern for global warming: A cross-national study of 47 countries
- African range wars: Climate, conflict, and property rights
- Climate change, rainfall, and social conflict in Africa
- Come rain or shine: An analysis of conflict and climate variability in East Africa
- Climate change, violent conflict and local institutions in Kenya's drylands
- Climate clashes? Weather variability, land pressure, and organized violence in Kenya, 1989-2004
- Does climate change drive land-use conflicts in the Sahel?
- Climate variability, economic growth, and civil conflict
- Civil war, climate change, and development: A scenario study for sub-Saharan Africa
- Climate-related natural disasters, economic growth, and armed civil conflict
- Don't blame the weather! Climate-related natural disasters and civil conflict
- Could climate change precipitate peace?
- Climate change and the institutional resilience of international river basins
- Weathering climate change: Can institutions mitigate international water conflict?
- Climate change and international water conflict in Central Asia
- Climate change and security in the Israeli-Palestinian context.

Hundreds of villagers and town residents of Liberia’s Grand Cape Mount Country have attracted nationwide attention in their bid to recover what they say is land seized from them and turned over to a Malaysian agro-industrial concern. A petition sent to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s office in January by the aggrieved people’s political representatives demanded the return of their land.

Police are detaining leading Senegalese rappers Simon and Kilifeu as nationwide protests continue to rock the West African state. The security personnel Friday fired tear gas as well as rubber bullets to disperse pro-opposition demonstrators, comprised mainly of rappers called Y en a marre (enough of it). Simon and Kilifeu were arrested after they managed to surface in the city centre at the head of dozens of their colleagues, after they bypassed several points manned by armed riot police.

Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Mulder is trying to rewrite history and suggest that settlers and colonialists found South Africa as a 'house to let', the Young Communist League of South Africa said on Sunday. 'The fact is that land was dispossessed violently and through bloodshed, and ultimately legislated in 1913, leaving Africans with no choice but to subject themselves to wage exploitation in the mining industry,' league secretary Buti Manamela said in a statement on its lekgotla.

In South Africa, policy with respect to HIV/AIDS has had a strong rights-based framing in line with international trends and in keeping with the constitutional overhaul in the post-Apartheid era. Since HIV in this setting has heavily affected women of reproductive age, there has been discussion about the particular needs of this subgroup, especially in the context of service integration. This paper is concerned with the way in which HIV positive women conceptualise these rights and whether they wish and are able to actualise them in their daily lives.

The Refugee Law Project (RLP) is an outreach project of the School of Law, Makerere University. Our Mission is to empower asylum seekers, refugees, deportees, IDPs and host communities to enjoy their human rights and lead dignified lives. RLP is currently seeking to appoint a number of staff, including the following: Human Resources Manager, Research Analyst, Volunteer English For Adults (EFA) Instructor, Volunteer Lawyer – Durable Solutions, Volunteer Lawyer – Gender & Sexuality, Volunteer Assessment Assistants, Finance Assistant and Volunteer Finance Assistant, Office Assistant, Community Interpreters.

February is the hottest month in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, and Mading Ngor, a reporter and presenter for the Catholic-owned Bakhita FM, trudged his way through the heat to cover parliament proceedings last week - only to be thrown unceremoniously out of the assembly. 'Before I had time to argue, four security guards pinned me to the ground and dragged me across the floor, tearing up my trousers,' Ngor, a hard-hitting, critical journalist, told me. The ensuing furor included apologies, a protest, an opinion column, a committee investigation, parliamentary debate, the banning of Ngor from the assembly, and finally, a parliamentary call to revive deliberations over three media bills originally drafted five years ago.

Exiled Somali journalists based in Nairobi, Kenya celebrated the world’s radio day on 13 February 2012 at hotel Madina in East-Leigh village of Nairobi. The gathering was organised by the Somali Exiled Journalists Association (SEJASS) as UNESCO requested all countries to celebrate this Day by undertaking activities with diverse partners, such as national, regional and international broadcasting associations and organisations, non-governmental organisations, media organisations, outlets as well as the public at large.

Key Somalia groups have reached an agreement on a number of pending transitional government tasks, including a federal structure for a future government and representation in parliament. Delegates from the presidency, cabinet and the parliament of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government met representatives from the authorities of Puntland, Galmudug and moderate Islamist group Ahlu Sunna wal-Jamea for three days in Garowe town to hammer out a final deal.

Tense negotiations are underway for the release of two Swedish journalists jailed by Ethiopia on terrorism charges in September. A delegation from the European Union, of which Sweden is a member, is said to have already met with Ethiopian prime minister Meles Zenawi. EU and Swedish officials are this week expected to outline options to further press the Horn of Africa country into releasing the journalists, including a review of aid obligations.

Senegalese riot police fired volleys of tear gas and rubber bullets at stone-throwing demonstrators after prayers at a mosque in Dakar on Sunday, in fresh violence a week before presidential elections. Rescue workers took away one man who was unconscious after being hit by a rubber bullet, an Agence France-Presse journalist witnessed. It was the latest violence in days of urban clashes between police and protesters trying to defy a ban and hold demonstrations against 85-year-old President Abdoulaye Wade's plan to run for a third term in office.

Over 100,000 people in Mozambique are still recovering from losing their homes and crops, and from being cut off from schools and shops after a tropical storm and cyclone hit the southern African country in January. But the worst may not be over as another dangerous cyclone is expected to make landfall as emergency stocks run low.

Blog Black Looks has listed a number of Ugandan and African human rights organisations who have condemned the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009, including the Ugandan Law Society, Coalition of African Lesbians, Urgent Action Fund Kenya and Ugandan Frontline Defenders.