A network of community knowledge workers (CKWs) in Uganda uses a suite of mobile applications to give farmers a broad range of information. The CKWs can provide farming advice, market data, pest- and disease-control training, plus weather forecasts. Working with GPS, they have also collected survey data to supply agricultural researchers with detailed, location-specific information on diseases affecting local crops.

The Seeing is Believing project uses very high resolution satellite imagery to give farmers in West Africa information on soil fertility and accurate land size. Smallholder farmers in West Africa, and many other tropical regions, are experts in precision agriculture, and have been for many generations.

Google Code Jam is a coding competition in which professional and student programmers are asked to solve complex algorithmic challenges in a limited amount of time. The contest is all-inclusive: Google Code Jam lets you program in the coding language and development environment of your choice.

With a request for a $3.75 billion World Bank loan for a new coalfired power plant, South African political leaders seem determined to entrench a policy on climate change that disregards clear evidence of catastrophic consequences, echoing the earlier disastrous policies of former President Thabo Mbeki on AIDS. But opposition is mounting to the current plan, which would consolidate South Africa's Eskom as the continent's leading producer of greenhouse gases.

A photo exhibition organized by the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association went ahead in Harare on Wednesday evening after the High Court ordered police to return the photographs they had seized the previous day. But that same evening the police returned to the art gallery to try and confiscate the pictures again.

Eight hundred people displaced by excessive flooding and intense rains in Lusaka, the capital of southern African country Zambia. More than 60 families evacuated from their waterlogged shacks to a temporal resettlement campsite on higher grounds out of the Independence Stadium in Lusaka Nort

Three Ugandan journalists were arrested by the Police over an alleged seditious story concerning the Kasubi tomb fire. The three, Dalton Kwesiga, Ben Byaruhanga and Johnson Taremwa work for The Red Pepper. Their troubles stem from a story titled ‘Police quizzes Mengo ministers over Kasubi fire’.

This 59-page report documents the myriad ways in which the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) has systematically punished opposition supporters. Since the 2005 polls, the party has used its near-total control of local and district administrations to undermine opponents' livelihoods through withholding services such as agricultural inputs, micro-credit, and job opportunities.

An Islamic court in Nigeria has banned a rights group from hosting debates on the Twitter and Facebook websites on the use of amputations as a punishment. The court, in the northern city of Kaduna, backed a case brought by a pro-Sharia group arguing that the forums would mock the Sharia system.

A radio reporter jailed for a week in Kismayo, was released, but he was expelled from the town and told not to come back, according to a statement from the Alshabab authorities. According to The statement journalist Mohamed Salad Abdulle, working for independent broadcaster Somali Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) was released but the Alshabab court has ordered him to leave the town with in 36 hours and told him not to return.

African science ministers are hoping to extend a high-speed fibre optic network — currently linking Egypt to the northern hemisphere — to other countries in Africa.

He gives computer advice to his fellow-teachers and fixes broken printers. He also uses digital material to enrich his classes and by using a school blog he helped to set up a partnership with a French school. Through IICD-supported trainings, teacher Christophe Hien of Bogodogo College in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso is now an ICT expert at his scho

We must end the false dichotomy between prevention and treatment. If we choose one over the other we will fail. We know from our experiences in the 1990s, that if treatment isnt there, people will not come to the health centers and doctors and nurses will not stay. We know from our long experience that it is virtually impossible to have successful public sector health and AIDS treatment programs where some people get therapy and others in dire need dont. - Dr. Peter Mugyenyi, Joint Clinical Research Centre, Kampala.

About Rwf60 million has been moved in daily transactions, with the use of the 'Mobile Money' facility, a month after it was launched, MTN Rwanda officials said. Andrew Rugege, the MTN Chief Executive Officer (COO) told Business Times on Friday that daily transactions had increased since the 'Mobile Money' platform was launched and added that active subscribers are close to 30,000 of the over 1 million MTN mobile clients.

The government is proposing a ban on second-hand computers to curb dumping and encourage local assembling. A study on electronic waste conducted in Kenya in 2008 indicated that the country generated 3,000 tonnes of e-waste from computers, monitors and printers in 2007. Information and Communications PS, Dr Bitange Ndemo, says his ministry is proposing to Treasury to include in the next year's Budget a ban on used computers.

Global telecoms giant Tata Communications was set to increase its investments in Africa to capitalise on the arrival of new submarine data cables, CEO Srinath Narasimhan said last week.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned the ruling of Monday, 8 March by the Ethiopian Supreme Court which reinstated the hefty fines which had been imposed by the country’s High Court against four publishing houses which had successfully appealed a judgment of the High Court following the infamous treason trial of 2005.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is deeply concerned about the security and safety of journalists in Somalia following the detention of Mohamed Salad Abdulle, of Somali Broadcasting Corporation and correspondent of Markabley radio in Kismayo and Mohamed Abdikarim, a correspondent with Hornafrik and Markabley radio station. The two were arrested on Tuesday 16 March 2010 by the Al Shabaab Administration in Jubba and Gedo regions.

The thickest book on secondary school teacher Hellen Ndalama’s desk is her indigenous language dictionary. It is also her most-used book. The front cover is partly ripped and the upper end of the spine is secured with adhesive tape. With 35,000 entries, the new book which translates Chichewa to English (CE) and English to Chichewa (EC) is the first comprehensive dictionary of its kind in Malawi.

Kenyan farmer Zack Matere pulls his mobile out of his pocket holds it up and takes a couple of photos. "It seems they have come back and are digging here again." He is referring to a group of people who have encroached on a water catchment area and are endangering the whole community's water supply.