Despite a government policy that made science subjects compulsory for all secondary school students, there is a reported shortage of 6,500 teachers to teach the subjects. According to the Ministry of Education, even the available 6,500 science teachers, a good number of them were ill-trained and cannot adequately pass on the skills to the learners.

A Civil Society Initiative has been set up to preserve the ‘collective memory’ of Madagascar by digitally archiving videos detailing its, often controversial, history. Reasons for controversy include disagreement over the tragedy of the 1947 Malagasy Uprising, a perspective limited by language, as well as destruction of historical archives during political crises.

Police in Malawi's commercial capital, Blantyre, Wednesday arrested a number of former ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) officials in pre-dawn raids of people fingered in an inquiry into the mysterious death of a 25-year-old Malawi university student. Robert Chasowa, a fourth-year engineering student at the Polytechnic, a constituent college of the University of Malawi, was found dead on campus on 24 September last year. Police immediately dubbed it suicide and produced two suicide notes and a post-mortem report to buttress their claims. But pathologist, Dr. Charles Dzamalala, who conducted the autopsy on Chasowa's remains, contradicted them and said the student was in fact bludgeoned to death.

A response to the HI-Virus in two HIV positive women, which enabled them to make potent antibodies that would kill most of the HIV types from around the world, has provided South African reseachers with potential clues for the development of an AIDS vaccine. The study published on Sunday in the journal, Nature Medicine, describes how a unique change in the outer covering of the virus found in two HIV infected South African women enabled them to make potent antibodies which are able to kill up to 88% of HIV types from around the world. The discovery, described as 'groundbreaking' provides an important new approach that could be useful in making an AIDS vaccine, according to the researchers.

International human rights groups say the Supreme Court’s ruling is symptomatic of the wide and ever-increasing obstacles that human rights organisations face in attempting to continue their essential work.

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees has announced it is to open another new camp in Ethiopia to deal with Somalis fleeing conflict and insecurity. A spokesperson for UNHCR in Geneva, Andrej Mahecic, said that with people still arriving at Dollo Ado, 'the Ethiopian Government has authorized the opening of a sixth site and land for this has been designated between the town of Kole and Kobe camp, some 54 kilometers north of Dollo Ado town.'

Women comprise less than a third of the computer science, engineering and physics fields in some of the world's key emerging economies, according to a report. They also represent a small minority in leadership positions, such as heads of universities or science academy members, said the report, which was published this month (2 October) by Women in Global Science & Technology (WIGSAT), a consulting group based in Canada.

Egyptian Popular Current leader and former presidential contender Hamdeen Sabbahi joined representatives from Egypt's opposition groups and civil society organisations, to announce the launch of a national front defending a 'constitution for all Egyptians' in a press conference late Tuesday 23 October. The front’s aim, they asserted, is to push for a constitution that better represents Egypt's diverse society and expresses the spirit of last year's 18-day uprising.

The on-going political crisis in Swaziland shows ‘the king continues to enjoy almost absolute control over the country,’ Freedom House has said. The House of Assembly passed a vote of no-confidence in the government and according to the Swazi Constitution King Mswati III should have sacked the government, but he did not. Instead, pressure was put on members of the House and after 12 days of uncertainty they reversed the decision in a controversial vote. Freedom House in a statement said the actions of the king, who is sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, and the government he appointed, ‘demonstrate a lack of consideration for the rule of law and the authority and independence of Swaziland’s governing institutions, including the House of Assembly, as written in the Constitution’.

The African Union readmitted Mali after suspending it from the pan-African bloc following a coup in March, and backed plans for authorities there to recapture the north from Islamists. Mali's membership was revoked after army officers overthrew the elected government seven months ago. The subsequent chaos gave free rein to a rebellion by Islamic extremists and Tuareg separatists who took over large swathes of the country's north, before the Islamists forced out their former Tuareg allies.

More than a thousand people gathered in Tataouine on Sunday (October 21st) to attend the funeral of an opposition party politician, who died three days earlier in clashes with salafists. Interior Ministry Spokesperson Khaled Tarrouche said that Lotfi Nakdh died of a heart attack and there were no traces of violence on his body. While, the Nidaa Tounes ('Call of Tunisia') party, headed by former Prime Minister Beji Caid Essebsi, insisted that he was beaten to death by pro-government demonstrators.

African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights adopts first General Comment, clarifying article 14(1)(d) and (e) of the African Women’s Protocol

Sudan has accused Israel of bombing a military arms factory, threatening retaliation after a resulting fire killed two people and injured a third. 'We think Israel did the bombing,' Culture and Information Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman told a news conference. 'We reserve the right to react at a place and time we choose.'

Cameroon lawyer Alice Nkom, who is known for defending gays and lesbians in a country where homosexuality is outlawed, has said that she has been receiving death threats from anonymous callers over her stance. 'Since October 18, I have become the victim of anonymous death threats,' she said, adding that she has been warned to stop defending homosexuals.

Nigeria lost out on tens of billions of dollars in oil and gas revenues over the last decade from cut price deals struck between multinational oil companies and government officials, a confidential report seen by Reuters says. A team headed by the former head of the anti-corruption agency Nuhu Ribadu produced the 146-page study on an oil ministry request. It covers the year 2002 to the present.

The United Nations High Commission for Human Rights (UNHCR) is currently reviewing Ghana's human rights record over the past four years mainly under late President John Evans Atta Mills' administration. Under its Universal Periodic Review (UPR), the UNHCR began the process on Tuesday October 22 with submissions from civil society groups such as the Human Rights Advocacy Centre (HRAC) and the Amnesty International, Ghana. Although the report highlighted a number of different human rights abuses in Ghana, it also acknowledges significant advancement made in the quest for abolition of the death penalty.

Politicians will be required to submit their campaign text messages for vetting at least 48 hours before they are sent. And the SMSs must only be sent to mobile phone users who have subscribed for them. These are some of the measures put in place by the Communications Commission of Kenya to curb the spread of hate messages via SMS.

The 2nd All Stakeholders Conference got off to a dramatic and chaotic start in Harare on Monday, with the MDC-N leader Welshman Ncube walking out of the event, to protest the presence of Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara. At the heart of his protest is the fact SADC leaders resolved at the last summit in Maputo that Ncube would be the third principal allowed to participate in GPA negotiations. But ZANU PF went against SADC and insisted Mutambara would remain the third principal to participate in government business.

As the humanitarian crisis unfolds in Sudan’s South Kordofan and Blue Nile states, international humanitarian organizations have not been able to assess the nutrition and food security situation in these areas until now. For the first time since 2011 - when the government of Sudan banned all international humanitarian aid organizations from operating in the two state -an independent rapid food security and nutrition assessment has been conducted in South Kordofan state. The findings of the assessment, released by the Enough Project in a report, are alarming.

Western officials say a planned military push to reclaim northern Mali from armed rebel groups is unlikely to begin before next year - despite concerns about an escalating 'terrorist' threat posed by the fighters there. Proposals for an offensive by Mali's forces, supported by troops from neighbouring nations and other African Union states - but not Western countries - are to be discussed at a meeting of African officials in Addis Ababa. An international plan is being finalised to help Mali's weak interim government take on the groups, including armed Islamist groups and Tuareg rebels, that have become the de facto rulers of the country's north following chaos prompted by a military coup in March.