For the first time ever, the Kenyan finance minister has allocated almost four million dollars, about 3.6 per cent of the primary education budget, to provide free sanitary pads to schoolgirls. This comes after persistent pressure from women parliamentarians who took the issue of girls’ absenteeism from school, due to lack of sanitary pads, to parliament. It was a campaign that left their male counterparts speechless, for such matters are rarely spoken about in public, let alone in parliament, in Kenya’s conservative society.

Health workers say an apparent rise in contraceptive use in Nigeria stems largely from a willingness by traditional and religious leaders in some regions to use their influence in promoting reproductive health. In the predominantly Muslim north, where contraceptive use has historically been far lower than the national average, the support of traditional leaders has helped change attitudes in communities where contraception was long regarded as taboo.

Zimbabwe’s Justice and Legal Affairs ministry has dismissed reports that the country has failed to recruit a hangman since 2005, after several people rushed to hand in their applications for the supposedly vacant post. The ministry has said there is no opening for the job and instead blamed the cabinet for 'sitting' on requests to carry out executions since last year. There are 55 convicts on death row, some who have been there for up to 13 years.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Sunday called for an investigation into the financial affairs of African National Congress Youth League president Julius Malema. 'We call for an investigation by the ANC's committee on ethics and members' interests, the SA Revenue Service (Sars) and the Special Investigations Unit into the allegations,' spokesperson Patrick Craven said in a statement. This came after AfriForum laid a corruption case against Malema on Sunday, after it was reported that he had a trust fund for deposits from business people.

The Cuban Five are five Cuban men who are in US prisons serving two life sentences and 96 years, collectively, after being wrongly convicted in the US federal district court in Miami on 8 June 200l. The open letter - available at the link provided - authored by long time activists, Joan P. Gibbs, Esq. and Rosemari Mealy, JD, Ph.D., has been endorsed by over a 100 activists from throughout the United States and around the world.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi recently dismissed a question from an MP representing his ruling EPRDF about comments made by Ken Ohashi, former country director of the World Bank to Ethiopia. Ohashi believes Ethiopia’s economy has deeply structural flaws in competitiveness and is trapped in a low productivity quagmire. He concluded his four-year tenure in Ethiopia last month. He was known for his scepticism on the viability of the administration’s signature plan outlined in the Growth and Transformation Plan.

Mali's majority party, the Malian Alliance for Democracy (ADEMA), picked Parliament Speaker Dioncounda Traore as its presidential candidate for April 2012 polls, a party official said Saturday. ADEMA holds 54 of 147 seats in parliament and has dominated the chamber since former president Alpha Oumar Konare was elected in 1992.

Government departments have been called upon to cut their 2011/2012 budgets by 25 per cent. According to Bheki Bhembe who is Director of Budget and Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Finance, meetings with the ministries on the issue are underway. 'We have issued Circular No.3 of 2011 to cut ministries’ budgets by 25 per cent. We are meeting them to look at reducing their budgets hoping to reduce level of commitment going forward,' he said. He noted that the reality of the government financial crisis has hit home with the ministries and they are cooperating.

Several key Malawi leaders of last week's anti-government protests are in hiding after President Bingu wa Mutharika threatened to arrest them following the deadly riots, a leading rights activist said. 'The leaders have received death threats from unknown people. They are in hiding for their personal safety and that of their families after the President said he would arrest them,' Moses Mkandawire, one of the main organisers of the protests in the northern city of Mzuzu, said.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Pretoria has welcomed the sentencing of human trafficker Adina dos Santos (28) to life imprisonment. Dos Santos was also given a one-year sentence in the Pretoria Regional Court for living off the money the young women had made. She was found guilty in May of trafficking three girls from Mozambique to Pretoria in February 2008.

Ethiopia and Uganda have signed bilateral agreements to cooperate in regional security operations. The deal also seeks to strengthen economic ties while allowing for the free movement of people between the two countries. Ethiopia's Foreign Affairs ministry said the agreement would enable the two countries to take a common position on regional security affairs. Among the issues to be prioritised are Somalia, South Sudan and Eritrea.

Gambia feted the 17th anniversary of a coup by President Yayha Jammeh on 22 July as his regime faced allegations from rights bodies of muzzling journalists, killings and torture. Jammeh seized power in Gambia on 22 July 1994 in a bloodless coup from predecessor Dawda Jawara, and the anniversary is typically feted with more pomp than independence day celebrations. Rights bodies have accused the 46-year-old leader of creating a climate of fear which has terrified journalists and rights defenders into toeing the line and quashes any dissent against his regime.

'The death of newsprint represents the end of an era. And news gathering will not be replaced by the Internet,' argues this article about the US news industry, but which has relevance for the industry globally. 'Journalism, at least on the large scale of old newsrooms, is no longer commercially viable. Reporting is time-consuming and labor-intensive. It requires going out and talking to people. It means doing this every day. It means looking constantly for sources, tips, leads, documents, informants, whistle-blowers, new facts and information, untold stories and news. The steady decline of the news business means we are plunging larger and larger parts of our society into dark holes and opening up greater opportunities for unchecked corruption, disinformation and the abuse of power.'

A United Nations report has said that disconnecting people from the internet is a human rights violation and against international law. The report railed against France and the United Kingdom, which have passed laws to remove accused copyright scofflaws from the internet. It also protested blocking internet access to quell political unrest

More than three years ago, peace accords signed in the North Kivu provincial capital, Goma, were supposed to signal the end of violence and displacement in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, as the country heads for general elections in November, armed factions continue to destabilize the country. In this analysis, IRIN explores the sticking points in the protracted conflict, which has displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has met with northern elders on the menace of Islamist sect Boko Haram, blamed for a spate of deadly bomb and gun attacks especially in the city of Maiduguri. The meeting explored different options to bring about peace and security in the beleaguered state and other affected areas in northern Nigeria, said a minister who briefed journalists after the meeting.

Sun Biofuels Mozambique, a subsidiary of United Kingdom-based Sun Biofuels, has exported the first batch of 30 tonnes of Jatropha oil, from its fields in the central Mozambican province of Manica, to the German airliner 'Lufthansa'. Cited in the daily paper 'Noticias', Sun Biofuels Mozambique manager for corporate affairs, Sergio Gouveia said that the exports of Jatropha oil follows an order placed by Lufthansa for testing on its planes, Mozambique's news agency, AIM, reported. 'Civil aviation is an interesting market, that's why we are looking forward for Lufthansa test results, which has shown a keen interest in our production,' stressed Gouveia.

After being filed two weeks ago, it is now only a matter of time before the MP for Gaborone Central, Dumelang Saleshando, presents a motion of no confidence in President Ian Khama and his government. Because the motion is not likely to pass, Saleshando intends to use it to highlight the shortcomings of the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) government under Khama, whom he considers unfit for office. Speaking in an interview, Saleshando blamed the recent public service strike on Khama, saying as unions bargained with the employer, the president had seen fit to tour the country vowing that there would be no salary increase.

Nigerian security forces killed at least 23 people in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri in retaliation for a bomb attack blamed on a radical Islamist sect, Amnesty International said on Monday (25 July). Boko Haram, a radical group which wants sharia law more widely applied across Africa's most populous nation, has been behind almost daily shootings and attacks with homemade bombs in and around Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state.

A gallery of images from Hossam el-Hamalawy and published on the London Guardian website illustrates how a protest march towards army headquarters in Cairo ended in violence.