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Guinea: A Wave of Horror But No UN Action

Captain Moussa Dadis Camara
A wave of horror spread among the assembled delegates at the UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva as news of the September 28 shootings of unarmed participants in a political meeting in Conakry was known.  It was the last days of the Council session which was then in its final stage of negotiating and voting resolutions.  Was there anything that the UN human rights body could do? 

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The Why and the How of Land-Grabbing in Africa

Two years ago singer-songwriter and activist Bob Geldof was so excited about biofuels he even became the special advisor to biomass company Helius. At the time, Geldof visited jatropha curcas plantations in Swaziland run by UK biodiesel producer D1 Oils. Geldof was quoted as saying that these plantations had 'life changing potential'. Since then, D1 Oils dropped out and Mr Geldof silenced.

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Mobile Schools Help Nomadic Somalis Fight Drought

Mobile outdoor classroom
The sandy track cutting through Kenya's northeast province is marred by the corpses of cows, goats and donkeys. The drought has sucked all color leaving the landscape a singular shade of gray. Global warming has scarred this region. Somali pastoralists, the main community in this barren desert, cannot remember a drought this severe. It has not rained for over a year.  

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Sahara: Film Screenings in The Devil’s Garden

Photo: David Bollero
Nineteen-year-old Ibrahim Hussein Leibeit shifts his weight in obvious discomfort. The stump of his leg, blown off below the knee by a landmine on 10 April, just three weeks ago, is yet to heal. 'The pain is horrible,' he tells me. 'But today it is possible for me to think about other things.' Leibeit is a refugee. He was born and raised in the isolated camps in south western Algeria, where an estimated 165,000 Saharawi people who fled their native Western Sahara have lived for over three decades.