On 8 December 2004, the National Communications Board (Conseil national de la communication, CNC), Guinea's media regulatory body, announced the lifting of a suspension order against "Le Quotidien" newspaper. The paper was suspended "indefinitely" more than three weeks ago and its editorial team is experiencing serious financial difficulties as a result of the forced closure. (French version available)

The University for Peace's Africa Programme is seeking three individuals to work as external evaluators of its current 5-year project on peacebuilding in Africa. The Africa Programme is presently organized around three regional hubs- Southern Africa, West Africa and East and Central Africa. The Africa Programme will hire one evaluator from each of the three hubs. Each will be responsible for evaluation of activities within the hub. One of the three evaluators will act as the lead evaluator of the project, coordinating the work with the two others. The level of effort for the lead evaluator is presently estimated at 60%, and 40% for the two other evaluators.

The Program Officer for Human Rights will be responsible for developing, monitoring and evaluating a program of grantmaking to strengthen respect for and realization of economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights in the Middle East and North Africa. The program currently focuses on increasing the effectiveness of human rights protection, improving access to law and legal protection of rights, and promoting the cultural legitimacy of human rights.

AfricanColours is an independent online organization since 2000 that works for the promotion of African artists through the hosting of a virtual Africa- information infrastructure for African art. We are looking to recruit dynamic, self motivated, innovative team members for our new head office to be situated in Nairobi who will be expected to complement the execution of the AfricanColours programmes which include PR, art projects and campaigns, the purchase and dissemination of editorials, news, new media productions.

Former South African president Nelson Mandela on Monday kicked off a fund-raising drive to help children orphaned or left vulnerable by AIDS on the world's poorest continent. In a taped message aired at the function, he said: "No child in Africa, and in fact anywhere in the world, should be denied education."

The government has asked the Court of Appeal to reinstate the Justice Julie Sebutinde report on corruption in the Uganda Revenue Authority nullified by court on 16 August. The court reduced the massive report to trash on grounds that the three commissioners did not consent to it. In its second grounds of appeal, the attorney general (AG) said the judge had failed to evaluate the evidence on record, nullified a report without looking at it and misdirected himself by relying on The Monitor and The New Vision newspaper cuttings to make a verdict.

Egypt's divorce system discriminates against women and undermines their right to end a marriage, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released on World Aids Day. In October, the government established family courts but, like no-fault divorce introduced four years earlier, these have failed to tackle ongoing discrimination against women. The 62-page report, "Divorced from Justice: Women's Unequal Access to Divorce in Egypt," documents serious human rights abuses stemming from discriminatory family laws that have resulted in a divorce system that affords separate and unequal treatment to men and women.

Previous Community Informatics conferences have been organised around different application areas, such as education, health and tourism. CIRN2005 takes a more open approach, and is focused on research and practice in the context of partnerships in Community Informatics.

The only classroom for the mentally disabled in Equatorial Guinea is run by two non-governmental organisations, InteRed and the Teresian Institute. According to an activist in Spain, the country's government have not provided any other public institutions because in their eyes, the mentally handicapped do not exist. The classroom has 40 students and has been providing basic education, adult literacy classes and vocational training since 1983. In order to receive more support and legitimacy, the Institution is placing pressure on the state to officially recognise the issued training certificates in order to help the graduates of their programmes enter the job market.

Two Evelyn Hone College student union leaders were arrested yesterday for allegedly instigating violence at the institution, contrary to section 91 (b)(c) Cap 87 of the laws of Zambia. Several other students who attempted to march to the ministry of Science and Technology to protest against the alleged increment of tuition fees next year were blocked by the police. The students started their demonstrations on Sunday night after word went round that the college management intended to hike the fees next year. They have been released on bond.

The Country Director will report to the Concern Universal (CU) person responsible for the Southern Africa Region. The Country Director will continue to develop and implement its programme in Mozambique and will be responsible for Programme Officers, Finance Manager and all service staff. The post is based in Lichinga with regular travel to Maputo to continue to develop CU's programme with donors and to consider establishing a CU office there. The post will require regular travel also to Zambezia Province (Milange) and to Blantyre in Malawi. The work base may be reviewed depending to programme demands in the coming years. Closing date: 23 Dec 2004

Under the supervision of the Resident Coordinator, and working in the Coordination Unit, the HAO functions will include assisting the UN Country team and facilitating inter-agency contingency planning by developing scenarios and common plans of action.

The Programme Director is responsible for supporting the management and development of the agency's work in Zimbabwe and for ensuring that the Fund contributes effectively to meeting the long- and short-term needs of children within the framework of agreed strategy and wider organisational aims. The Programme Director is also part of the regional management team for the agency. Please apply online at http://www.onlinejobs.redr.org
Closing Date: 5 February 2005

The United Nation's 2004 World Economic and Social Survey calls for better management and cooperation among nations to address global migration. It says 175 million people around the world are living away from their home countries, and an orderly and controlled population movement across borders could prove to be beneficial for both the sending as well as the receiving nations.

The December 2004 issue of Alliance, with a special feature on getting global giving going, has just been published. Articles include:
- An overview of the global philanthropy infrastructure
- How funders can help non-profits get media coverage for international issues
- Why the time is right for an expansion in African regional philanthropy.

Reporters Without Borders has condemned the action of the authorities on the semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar in continuing to harass the privately-owned weekly Dira, which has been prevented from publishing for the past 12 months. In a 24 November ruling, the Zanzibar high court made no comment on the Zanzibar government's claim that Dira violated press ethics - the reason given for closing the newspaper a year ago - but said it could not resume publishing because it was not properly registered. The court did, however, leave a door open for Dira by suggesting it could re-apply for an operating licence. (French version available)

A new report by the South African Institute for International Affairs (SAIIA) has highlighted the challenges and constraints facing education in Africa. According to the Johannesburg-based think tank, more than 40 million children of primary school age in sub-Saharan Africa are not receiving an education, (this amounts to almost half the children on the continent who should be in primary school). Enrolment in secondary school in 22 countries is below 20 percent, and less than 10 percent of the workforce has completed secondary school.

Armed men attacked a village in the western Sudanese state of North Darfur on Tuesday forcing about 2,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) to flee from their homes, the medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reported. "We are not sure who was behind the attack," Wyger Wentholt, MSF regional information officer told IRIN in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. "What our people on the ground were told by the IDPs was that the attackers were suspected to be a pro-government militia."

The Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) as part of its mandate to support the community and small commercial media in South Africa has initiated a process to develop the skills of such projects to mobilise resources from a range of organisations and structures. To this end, the Agency is now inviting proposals from individuals and organisations to design and implement resource mobilisation workshops.

On November 24 2004, the High Court of Tanzania, in Zanzibar, delivered its ruling on the long awaited case launched by the 'Dira' newspaper management team to challenge the Act used to close the only independent weekly in the Isles. According to sources from Zanzibar, the paper will remain closed because the High Court ruling has discovered that it violated registration procedures. "The result is zero-zero," Sports Editor of the then Dira newspaper, who is also BBC Kiswahili Correspondent in Zanzibar, Ally Saleh, told the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)-Tanzania in a telephone interview soon after the High Court's ruling.