Thousands of people took to the streets in Senegal's capital Dakar on Monday to protest against proposed trade deals with Europe. The rally was backed by Senegal's government which says the new agreement will expose local African markets to too much foreign competition.

After a truncated rainy season in Senegal’s southern Casamance region, granaries are empty and many families are getting by on one meal a day. Residents say as a result of food shortages some children are missing school, many families are divided as men leave to seek work, and people are increasingly turning to the production and sale of charcoal to make a living.

Senegal has joined Africa's economic tigers [South Africa and Nigeria] to openly declare its refusal to sign the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPAs) with the European Union. Senegalese President, Abdoulaye Wade, said his government would not endorse the agreements simply because they did not "defend Africa's interests."

Senegalese police fired tear gas to contain thousands of protesting street sellers barred from selling in the streets of the capital Dakar on Wednesday. The irate protesters invoked anti-government sentiments, threw stones, burnt vehicles and smashed car windows. The strikers polluted the air with smoke of dark clouds.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called on the government of Senegal to put an end to the "oppression" of journalists after the arrest of an editor this morning. This is the fourth arrest of a reporter or editor in the last month for allegedly offending the President or endangering national security. El Malick Seck, editor of the news website Rewmi.com, was arrested this morning at the headquarters of his company in the city of Thiès by the Division of Criminal Investigation (DIC) who is holding him in Dakar.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called on the government of Senegal to put an end to "oppression" of journalists after the arrest of an editor this morning. This is the fourth arrest of a reporter or editor in the last month for allegedly offending the President or endangering national security. El Malick Seck, editor of the news website Rewmi.com was arrested this morning at the headquarters of his company in the city of Thiès by the Division of Criminal Investigation (DIC) who is holding him in Dakar.

Reporters Without Borders condemns the kidnapping of Moussa Gueye, the editor of the privately-owned daily L’Exclusif, who was arrested, beaten and taken off to an unknown location by plain-clothes police on 8 October after being lured into a trap. His abduction came just hours after he published a story headlined “President’s nighttime escapade.”

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called on the Senegalese authorities for the release of Moussa Guèye, Editor of the private daily newspaper L’Exclusif, detained for four days after the publication of articles having allegedly offended the President of the Republic and his Principal Private Secretary. Another journalist of L’Exclusif, Justin Ndoye is wanted by the police.

President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal Friday named 65 new senators, more than half of them women, for the predominantly conservative Muslim country in West Africa. Wade, who names two-thirds of the revamped parliament, released a list of 65 senators, 36 of them women. Added to four from the 35 elected members, there are now 40 women in the 100-strong chamber, more than double the previous one that had only 18.

A constitutional council in Senegal yesterday confirmed a landslide by the ruling Senegalese Democratic Party of President Abdoulaye Wade in the 19 August senatorial polls. The council confirmed that ruling polled 34 of the 35 senatorial seats in what it called an open contest. A single seat was won by an opposition And-Jef/African Party for Democracy and Socialism (AJ/PADS).

Experts are warning Senegalese men who have sex with men not to get caught up in the hype about male circumcision after recent research indicated that the procedure could offer some protection against HIV, and are urging them to keep using other means of protection. In 2006, the results of three studies, one each in South Africa, Kenya and Uganda, showed that the risk of HIV infection was up to 60 percent lower among circumcised men. However, these studies were specific to heterosexual interaction.

A water channel running through the centre of the bustling Senegalese capital, Dakar, may have been intended as a public recreation area and amenity, but the reality is different. Knee-level rubbish and stagnant water mean the channel, known locally as Canal 4, is generally considered to be a large, open sewer, and potentially poses a health hazard.

Poor planning, maintenance and technical support are amongst the factors threatening to undermine an ambitious effort to electrify Senegal’s remote Sine Saloum Delta using solar energy. Another major problem is people’s lack of willingness or ability to pay the fees for the photovoltaic systems.

Spain and Senegal said on Friday they were winning the fight against illegal migration as the European nation promised to invest in the West African state and create more legal job opportunities for Senegalese workers. The Spanish interior and labour ministers, Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba and Jesus Caldera, announced during a visit to Dakar that several hundred legal jobs in Spain would be opened up this year for workers from Senegal, to encourage lawful migration.

For a while it appeared as if Madiambal Diagne might have found a way around the Senegalese government's apparent determination to keep him away from the airwaves. The well-known journalist and head of "Avenir communications" (Future Communications) had tried since 2003 to start a radio station, only to be told that frequencies were at saturation point -- this as pro-government persons succeeded in setting up stations, Diagne told IPS.

"The Old Man is strong!" is a favourite chant of supporters of Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, whose rule over the West African state looks set to become stronger still in parliamentary polls. An opposition boycott of the polls will leave the field clear for a sweeping victory by the octogenarian president's Sopi coalition, whose name means "change".

It was yet another blow for the Senegalese opposition yesterday when the Council of State legalised the distribution of legilsative seats in the country, a move vehemently challenged by the opposition Parti Socialiste (PS). Until it was dislodged from power by President Abdoulaye Wade’s ruling PDS in 2000, PS had been ruling Senegal since independence in 1960. The party captured third place in the last Presidential polls.

The Africa Governance Institute (AGI) is a pan-African centre of excellence designed to generate innovative and serious thinking on the governance challenges facing the African continent and the solutions that African regional and sub-regional organizations, states, civil society and the private sector should develop in response to these challenges. The AGI is looking to recruit an Executive Director. the deadline for applications is 25 May 2007.

Senegalese authorities had agreed to allow a Spanish hospital ship, Esperanza del Mar, which has 91 illegal African migrants on borad, to disembark in the port of the capital Dakar on Thursday. Mauritanian authorities had earlier refused the Spanish request to allow the ship to disembark in their country on humanitarian grounds, arguing that the rescue mission took place within the maritime area of Senegal.

On April 18, politician Moustapha Cissé Lô burst into the studios of radio Disso FM, accompanied by thugs, and threatened to kill the station’s staff because his inclusion on the ruling party’s parliamentary candidate list had just been criticised on the air by a listener.