Full Coverage: East Africa

28.05.2004 United Nations Development Programme has organised a two-day workshop on national e-strategies in Beirut, Lebanon. Delegates from the Arab region are attending this high-level meeting.

27.05.2004 The ICT Focus Magazine of Ethiopia has invited entries for its Best Website competition. May 30 is the last date of sending entries for this competition to be held during the INFOCOM 2004.

27.05.2004 "We were beaten and mostly were tied in the 'helicopter' position and tortured in groups of 10 to 15. We were tied up day and night, except for three short food and toilet breaks. I was tied up for two weeks. One of us got very ill with bronchitis and there was no medical treatment… Some got paralysed in the arms and legs." - Eritrean detainee in Adi Abeto prison

25.05.2004 A group of Nairobi slum dwellers banded together and asked the city council to give them the land that they had been squatting on illegally. In return, they promised to build proper houses, schools, and community centers without any government money. It's the latest example of what experts say is becoming a model for slum improvement around the world.

25.05.2004 Economic reforms forced on Zambia by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in the face of fierce opposition from Zambia's democratically elected Parliament and civil society have directly resulted in making tens of thousands unemployed, destroying key industries, causing extensive social unrest and increasing poverty says a new report published by the World Development Movement.

25.05.2004 Zimbabwe police on Friday arrested Bornwell Chakaodza, editor of the independent weekly Standard newspaper, and one of his reporters, for the second time in three days, his staff said.

25.05.2004 Malawi's new president, Bingu wa Mathurika, has been sworn in amid threats of a court challenge to the election results by opposition parties.

24.05.2004 When Kenya's National Rainbow Coalition

Kibera slum, Nairobi, Kenya. (c) UNEP

government came to power in 2002, it vowed to ensure that the urban poor would have access to adequate housing. But a recent spate of evictions and demolitions in Kenya's capital has raised questions about the sincerity of the government's pledges, reports Rasna Warah.

24.05.2004 Eritrea has denied reports that it had asked Nigeria to mediate in its border dispute with Ethiopia. Presidential spokesman Yemane Gebremeskel said his government holds that the boundary commission ruling in 2002 should be implemented by Ethiopia.

18.05.2004 Internews, a news network, has opened a Media Resource Center in Nairobi, stocked with HIV/AIDS publications. The center is meant to provide Kenyan journalists with resources to help them produce stories about HIV/AIDS.

14.05.2004 Psychologists are always amazed at a child's ability to bounce back from the worst of situations. But for all children, the will to survive and thrive always requires a little help.

14.05.2004 Farmers speak their minds in front of video cameras and thus help the local government in taking decisions on land disputes. In this highland of Arsaal, Lebanon, it seems new media will help end the decade-long friction among local people.

14.05.2004 Calling for "African solutions to African problems", a group of religious organisations meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, have recommended the use of traditional methods to resolve conflicts in the Great Lakes region. The group has adopted a position paper ahead of a planned UN and African Union (AU) international conference on the Great Lakes.

12.05.2004 It takes all sorts of weapons to battle the HIV/AIDS virus. In Tanzania, some families are winning the war with nutrients from four-legged friends -- goats -- and support from two-legged friends from different parts of the world.

12.05.2004 In a letter to the Zambian ministry for communications and transport, APC has commended the Zambian government for its efforts in drafting a holistic national ICT policy and for disseminating the draft online to make it possible for the public to submit comments. "We value the broad definition of ICT adopted early in the document," says APC, but "Some important policy concerns are mentioned as action points for implementation without a clear enough policy position that would give direction during implementation. Some are left out altogether."

12.05.2004 To further the development of ICT projects, 42 community radios and multimedia centres in Mozambique have formed a coalition to work closely with international organisations.

11.05.2004 A theatre company in Zimbabwe has been banned from performing a satirical play that deals with political issues, believed to be hitting too close to home, its producer said. The company, Rooftop Promotions, said it was due to go on a nationwide tour in June with the play, Super Patriots and Morons, which dramatises life in an unnamed African country under an iron-fisted dictator.

07.05.2004 A group of blind volunteers in Ethiopia are working hard to transfer adaptive technology to their developing nation. The idea was first proposed by Tamru E. Belay, a blind Ethiopian-born Canadian and qualified adaptive technologist, who recently returned to his home country where he is busy promoting and coordinating the implementation of adaptive technology for the benefit of his visually disabled and impaired compatriots.

07.05.2004 Kenyan authorities are taking the first steps towards freezing property and other assets in the UK, Switzerland and other countries in a $1bn-plus corruption probe involving former senior government figures. Investigations under way since June last year have uncovered a link with the $3bn (?2.5bn, £1.7bn) alleged to have been channelled abroad by the former Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha, and his family during the 1990s. Officials conducting the Kenyan investigation in conjunction with Kroll, the international risk consultancy, said they had identified a "key Geneva-based individual" who was central to money-laundering operations in both cases. Switzerland has promised co-operation in freezing assets.

06.05.2004 In a dramatic new development, Somalian supermodel Iman has quit as the public 'face' of De Beers. The announcement comes two years after Survival International began targeting Iman to halt her involvement with the multi-national diamond company. De Beers controls diamond mining in Botswana, and the diamond deposits on the Bushmen's land are believed by many to be behind the government's decision to evict the Bushmen from their ancestral land and place them in bleak relocation centres.