Hundreds of delegates to a world racism conference wrapped up six days of meetings with resolutions calling for rights to African citizenship and praise for Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's land redistribution programme.

Hundreds of NGOs from all over Zimbabwe will collectively showcase and dialogue with their key stakeholders at the first ever and historic National NGO EXPO to be held on 11- 13 October at the Harare Exhibition Park, Hall of Commerce, being facilitated by the National Association of Non Governmental Organizations (NANGO).

Striking teachers in the Central African Republic said on Wednesday they were ready to negotiate with government over salary arrears and end their protest.

Delegates at an international conference against racism cheered and whistled on Wednesday as they voted to expel non-blacks from the meeting, saying it was too traumatic to discuss slavery in front of them.

Fierce clashes between rival ethnic groups in western Ethiopia have left more than 60 people dead and forced thousands to flee their homes, an Ethiopian human rights organisation said.

Liberia's police chief Paul Mulbah on Wednesday led riot police in whipping school pupils to break up a peaceful protest in Monrovia, journalists at the scene reported.

Computer laboratories are to be placed in 102 schools throughout the country and arrangements made for electronic links to schools in the United Kingdom, South Africa and South-East Asia, officials have announced.

CRS' offices in the South Africa region are being reorganized to effectively manage the Southern Africa food crisis in a manner that supports a significantly increased response while maintaining program and management quality standards. The Program Manager, Finance will form part of the Management team, which provides support to the emergency as well as the ongoing CRS programs within the Region.

GOAL has been working in Angola since 1993, responding to humanitarian needs arising from one of Africa's longest running conflicts. Since that time, GOAL's programmes have had a strong emphasis on health. GOAL has worked in Saurimo since late 1993. In 1993 / 94 GOAL implemented an emergency health programme (using GOAL employed staff) which subsequently developed from 1994 to 2000 into a joint emergency programme with the local Ministry of Health (using MoH staff). Activities under this programme were handed over the MoH and a national NGO in early 2001.

This is an immediate short-term appointment for a period of three to four months to augment the Africa Division's research on DRC while the search for the full-time DRC Researcher is underway (the Interim Researcher hired on this short-term basis may also request consideration as the DRC Researcher). The researcher will be based in one of HRW's offices (New York, Washington DC, London or Brussels) and should be prepared to travel frequently to the region to monitor violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in DRC.

The "Mail & Guardian" newspaper has scored an important victory in a R3 million (approx. US$288,000) defamation suit filed by South Africa Housing Minister Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele against the newspaper. On 27 September 2002, the court ruled that a cabinet minister should not have the standing to sue for defamation when criticised in relation to the execution of her function as a minister.

The German Agency for Technical Co-operation in Zimbabwe (GTZ) has bailed out of the country without completing major projects due to the prevailing political situation, the Zimbabwe Independent has learnt. It has relocated to South Africa.

The business community has announced that it will inject R50 million into the LoveLife HIV/Aids prevention project.
Former presidents Nelson Mandela of South Africa and Bill Clinton of the United States attended a ceremony yesterday to celebrate the partnership between the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Kaiser Family Foundation in support of the loveLife initiative.

Minister of Social Development, Dr Zola Skweyiya, has questioned the distribution of Lotto proceeds, the Star reports. He has hinted that an amendment of the legislation in this regard might bring more transparency to the allocation of funds.

The mergers and restructuring of tertiary institutions are geared towards the creation of a docile, unskilled slave mass and an elite of controllers of the working class [the amabhunu amnyama]. Many working class and other poverty-stricken parents are making huge sacrifices to enroll their sons and daughters to tertiary institutions to study in the hope that they will have a better life than what the parents had to endure.

Nigerian children have launched a campaign for a better future and called on the Federal Government to improve their welfare. The children, who made a case for their future at a one-day Summit on the Nigerian Child, asked the President Olusegun Obasanjo-led administration to articulate and implement a policy on children and also table a bill on the Nigerian child before the National Assembly.

Hosted by the University of Natal Pietermartizburg, South Africa. Primary focus is to develop a regional strategy for ABLE provision and delivery, co-operation, and the implementation of projects in the Southern African Development Community which begins to respond to the socio-economic and political consequences of illiteracy. It will set in motion coherent efforts to improve the quality of adult learning in SADC member states. Seven Keynote and fourteen country papers will be presented.

Over 2,000 children fathered by Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF) soldiers are estimated to have been left behind in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), The New Vision, the Ugandan government-owned newspaper, reported on Tuesday from the northwestern DRC city of Gbadolite.

In Kenya, many students are starting a second week without lessons, as the country's state teachers continue to strike. The teachers are demanding that the government implement a 1997 salary deal, but the Education Ministry has refused and declared the strike illegal.

President Bakili Muluzi has lashed out at the "Chronicle" and "Daily Times" newspapers for what he termed "irresponsible journalism." Speaking at a rally in Balaka district (southern Malawi) on 25 September 2002, Muluzi described the "Daily Times" as a "naughty paper" whose agenda was questionable.