Jean-Paul Pougala answers questions from readers concerning his article 'The Lies of the Western war against Libya', which was translated into forty languages.

The Mental Health and Poverty Project (MHaPP) is a 5- year study of mental health policy development and implementation in four African countries: Ghana, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia. Following broad situation analyses in each of the four countries, three areas of intervention were identified.

Pulling the strings from behind the scenes...

Non-governmental organisation Defense of Foreigners has accused Libya's new authorities of jailing and torturing some 300 foreigners, mostly Tuaregs from Mali and Niger, suspected of being backers of ousted Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

The documentary film 'The Axe and the Tree: Zimbabwe’s Legacy of Political Violence' screened in Johannesburg at The Bioscope on Thursday 8 September at 6:30pm, followed by a Q&A with the director, Rumbi Katedza. More screenings are scheduled during the Tri Continental Film Festival.

The IOM office in South Africa is backing the production of a feature film which seeks to explore the complex themes of migration, xenophobia, identity, fear and reconciliation. The movie titled 'Man on Ground' is centred on Ade, a successful Nigerian banker based in the UK and Femi, his estranged brother who lives and works in South Africa.

The world’s first solar-powered netbook, Samsung Electronics’ NC215S laptop, is the ideal product for a continent where electricity access can be limited, but sunlight is never in short supply. The solar-charging capability means that it is also the first genuine environment-friendly product of its kind, with a lower carbon footprint than any other laptop on the market.

Remittances from Africans abroad are booming, growing fourfold in the past 20 years and shrugging off the global financial crisis, to total $40 billion a year. 'Tapping into this money with so-called diaspora bonds could help provide Africa with the equipment and services it needs for long-term growth and poverty reduction,' World Bank policymakers Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Dilip Ratha wrote in an op-ed in the New York Times.

Arguably the repression of activists and journalist by Egypt’s interim military government is a sign of how strong citizens’ movements are and how frightened the regime is of losing power as the country moves toward elections and drafting a new constitution, writes Rick Rowden for Goethe-Institut.

We are very pleased to announce that admissions are now open for five scholarships for candidates from African Commonwealth countries to study for the part-time Masters in International Human Rights Law at the University of Oxford, starting September 2012.

The course website can be found , while details about the scholarships, including eligibility criteria and how to apply, can be found on the

International peasant's movement La Via Campesina (LVC) makes clear its intentions to bring together millions of peasants, small and medium-size farmers, landless people, women farmers, indigenous people, migrants and agricultural workers from around the world. It defends small-scale sustainable agriculture as a way to promote social justice and dignity.

An IDN report finds that in the run-up to an important global forum on aid effectiveness, African leaders from fragile and conflict-affected countries have called for new approaches to development in the region and a reassessment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The call emerged from a regional meeting on peace- and state-building in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, September 7-9, 2011.

Teachers across Kenya boycotted classes as schools in that country reopened for their final term in this academic year. A nationwide teachers strike now threatens to disrupt preparations in the run up to this year's national examinations by standard eight and form four candidates.

Voting equipment for Democratic Republic of Congo's election is stranded abroad and costs are spiralling, according to documents and officials, threatening to delay a poll that is due at the end of November. Opposition politicians have already accused President Joseph Kabila of trying to rig his re-election in the vast, mineral-rich country's second vote since its 1998-2003 war.

A South African court has found Julius Malema, the fireband leader of the youth brigade of the country’s ruling African National Congress (ANC), guilty of hate speech. The court ordered the youth leader to pay costs for singing an apartheid-era song that advocated the killing of white farmers.

The current state of the global economy poses an unsolvable paradox to the traditional neoliberal doctrine of development. While economic modernisation based on Western models has long become unattainable for developing nations, wealthy countries are proving to be less and less willing to assist poorer nations in their road towards 'development.' To overcome this paradox, Francine Mestrum of Global Social Justice calls for a new paradigm based on self-steered development and global solidarity.

Kenya's Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife has come up with a new policy that will see the ministry take responsibility in wildlife conservation, compensation of wildlife related damages on crops, properties, death and injuries.

The latest release of leaked diplomatic cables by the whistle-blowing website, Wikileaks has revealed some persons around the presidency have tried to use their influence to manipulate control of the country's oil resources for their personal gain.

Africa Monitor reports (includes video) that higher global food prices are likely to spell trouble for aid organisations working to relieve famine in the Horn of Africa. Food prices are on the rise again, according to a new report issued last week by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that the Protestant Church of Algeria (EPA) was granted government approval in July to officially register congregations throughout the country. Algerian Christians view the decision as a positive step toward repealing a law that restricts Christian worship.