African and Caribbean News

Editorials

Reports

News : African and Caribbean News

The rate of new HIV infections has slowly declined in sub-Saharan Africa, but the region remains the area of the world most heavily hit by the epidemic and it accounts for nine of every 10 new infections among children. (AllAfrica)

As Rwanda applies this week to join the Commonwealth, the international grouping dominated by ex-British colonies, both its membership application and a number of recent books on Central Africa are focusing new attention on the current government's human rights record. (AllAfrica)

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called on all parties in Côte d'Ivoire to fix a new date as soon as possible for their much-delayed elections, now postponed yet again from their latest deadline of this month. (AllAfrica)

The United Nations Security Council's tenuous authority in Africa has been further threatened by an explosive new report from a UN Group of Experts* showing wide-ranging violations of the arms embargo on Congo-Kinshasa by both Western and African states. (AllAfrica)

Uganda is in a pole position to become one of the top 50 oil-producing countries in the world in six years, according to experts. (AllAfrica)

Ghana's enthusiastic efforts to become a major oil industry player in Africa could be short lived, as the country would only mine the 'Black Gold' for just 20 years. Furthermore, data from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have projected that Ghana could rake a total of $ 247.44million as oil revenues in 2011, which would decline to $1,550 in 2017. (AllAfrica)

Voters' turnout in the final round of election for the Montserrado senatorial seat, between the ruling Unity Party and the Congress for Democratic Change, was far poorer than the first round when 20% of an estimated 477,000 voters cast their ballots. (AllAfrica)

Pirates suspected to come from Nigeria have attacked an oil tanker off the coast of west Africa, killing a Ukrainian seaman, the commander of Benin's naval forces says. (AllAfrica)

INFRASTRUCTURE development topped the Federal Government's agenda in Capital Expenditure of the N4.07 trillion budgetary proposal for 2010 laid separately before the Senate and the House of Representatives yesterday. (AllAfrica)

The eviction of squatters from the Mau Forest was top on the agenda of the weekly meeting between President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Tuesday. (AllAfrica)

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is concerned by the growing tension between the parties to the Western Sahara negotiations, which have increased following the recent detention of several groups of Saharawi activists. (AllAfrica)

Abdalla Adam, an IDP (internally displaced person) leader from Alryad camp in El Geneina, West Darfur, says that he desperately wants to return to his village, Mestarei, from which he was forced to leave in 2003, but cannot because others have occupied his land. (AllAfrica)

Some 100 children under five years of age will die today in Zimbabwe, a bleak statistic that is part of new social development data released by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Government, revealing that the situation there for women and children has deteriorated in the past five years. (AllAfrica)

The rate of new HIV infections worldwide has declined by 17 percent in the past eight years and prevention efforts can take some of the credit, according to the annual UNAIDS update on the epidemic released on 24 November. (AllAfrica)

A new report has called for major reforms in the Commonwealth to ensure member countries were responsive and accountable to democratic governance. (AllAfrica)

About 4,000 residents of Muleba District in Kagera Region, have been rendered homeless as a result of heavy rain that was accompanied with strong winds. (AllAfrica)

Conditions in Equatorial Guinea cast serious doubt about the credibility of the forthcoming presidential election, Human Rights Watch said today. (AllAfrica)

Department of Communications has announced the approval of a R1.473 billion bank guarantee for the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). (AllAfrica)

ALTHOUGH poverty levels were at their lowest for at least 10 years due to the effects of social grants, four out of 10 South Africans still lived in poverty last year , the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) said yesterday. (AllAfrica)

THE corruption trial of former police commissioner Jackie Selebi has been delayed until next Tuesday to allow State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele 's advocate to get further instructions. (AllAfrica)

YOUNG Communist League (YCL) national secretary Buti Manamela says the call by its counterpart in the African National Congress (ANC) to nationalise mines only amounts to "state capitalism" and would not restore SA's mineral wealth to the people. (AllAfrica)

ZIMBABWE will receive about US$180 million from the Global Fund to Fight HIV and Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, with the first phase of the grant expected in January next year. (AllAfrica)

South Africa's economy turned around in the third quarter of 2009, registering marginal growth, the government's statistics agency reported Wednesday. (AllAfrica)

New evidence has emerged showing that both local and foreign lawyers probably did not want the Chiluba corruption case to die because they were making a killing. (AllAfrica)

The MP for Lobatse, Nehemiah Modubule has appealed to President Ian Khama to strike out the 'D' for Democracy because he has shown no commitment towards it. (AllAfrica)

The Forum for Democratic Change President, Dr Kizza Besigye has, in his first major press conference since returning from a 10-day tour of Karamoja, accused the Uganda People Defence Force of gross human rights abuses during the disarmament programme. (AllAfrica)

Several ruling party lawmakers yesterday moved to defy odds and throw their weight behind the opposition's crusade against the government's land law reform proposals as contained in the Land (Amendment) Bill 2008. (AllAfrica)

SUDAN has assured Uganda that it is a partner in peace and dismissed as "irresponsible accusations" claims by a senior LRA officer that it is still supporting the LRA. (AllAfrica)

An American-Slovak investment group, Bay View, has pledged to remain firm and committed to the continued investment in Rwanda for the development of human resources and socio-economic development of the country. (AllAfrica)

A court in Canada has formally proffered genocide charges on Jacques Mungwarere, a genocide suspect arrested in Canada earlier this month. (AllAfrica)

Rights groups say the UN must change its policies in DR Congo, after a leaked report claims violence there is worsening. (BBC News)