Doctors Report Esclation of Violence - The Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights have released a report expressing deep concern over the escalating cases of organised violence and torture and the increasing intimidation of medical personnel. [All Africa : Zimbabwe]

War Vets Continue to Target Homes of Election Observers - The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) report that there is continued targeting of their accredited observers, in Mashonaland Central and Mashonaland East. [All Africa : Zimbabwe]

CAIRO Wednesday, February 06, 2008 (IRIN) - This video short looks at how up to a million poor people have made one of the biggest burial grounds in Egypt their home. Dubbed ‘the City of the Dead’ and located on the outskirts of the capital, Cairo, many of the families who live there migrated from rural areas in search of work.

JAKARTA Tuesday, February 05, 2008 (IRIN) - Tanjung Priok District, where the port is located in Jakarta, capital of Indonesia, is said to have three suns above it instead of one because of its extreme heat in an already hot city. Aside from the climate, the district is also known for its high levels of crime, especially drug dealing.

DAKAR/KANO/NDJAMENA Tuesday, February 05, 2008 (IRIN) - Refugees fleeing the Chadian capital N’djamena are still swamping border towns in Cameroon and thousands have started queuing at Nigerian border posts, officials and refugees told IRIN.

KANO Monday, February 04, 2008 (IRIN) - A violent clash between a Muslim mob and the police over a woman accused of blaspheming the prophet Mohammed in the north-central Nigeria state of Bauchi left at least one person dead and five seriously injured.

GOZ BEIDA Monday, February 04, 2008 (IRIN) - Darfur’s refugees came to Chad seeking safety and security but as armed rebels sweep across the country, according to Chad’s government with the backing of Sudan, some refugees say they fear Sudan is reaching out to touch them there too.

LUSAKA Monday, February 04, 2008 (IRIN) - The reason why Zambia's urban poor have had to wade through ankle-deep water for weeks on end is as much down to human error as the torrential rain that has hammered the country: in a word, drainage.

KATHMANDU Sunday, February 03, 2008 (IRIN) - Punita Chaudhary was barely eight when her impoverished parents sold her for US$50 to a local middleman who worked as an agent finding domestic servants for families in Kathmandu and other Nepalese cities.

PORT HARCOURT Friday, February 01, 2008 (IRIN) - Tiophelis spends his days running. He won't say exactly where, but, like hundreds of other boys and men in the creeks of Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta region, he is constantly on the move for fear of attacks by the Nigerian military.

JOHANNESBURG Friday, February 01, 2008 (IRIN) - A truck packed with 40 children was intercepted in the central Mozambican province of Manica this week, sparking concern over increased child trafficking and the urgent need for effective legislation to address the problem.

NOUAKCHOTT Friday, February 01, 2008 (IRIN) - An attack on the Israeli Embassy in Mauritania on 1 February and two other high-profile attacks since December have thrown into question the country’s future as a modernising, tolerant Islamic Republic.

JOHANNESBURG Wednesday, January 30, 2008 (IRIN) - As South Africa braces for another month of rolling blackouts, followed by four months of electricity rationing, the country's power utility, Eskom, has assured hospitals that they will stay plugged into the national power grid.

BEIRUT Monday, January 28, 2008 (IRIN) - Deadly Shia riots in southern Beirut protesting over power and water cuts have occurred because these basic services have become part of the country’s increasingly tense political stand-off, said protesters and analysts.

PORT HARCOURT Monday, January 28, 2008 (IRIN) - Residents of Port Harcourt's poorest neighbourhoods say that police have wrongly blamed them for street violence between rival cult groups last year and are carrying out indiscriminate raids into their communities motivated by financial greed not criminal investigation.

ABUJA Thursday, January 24, 2008 (IRIN) - Authorities in Nigeria have started identifying the parents of 105 children found packed on a lorry last week who they suspect were trafficked to serve as beggars or servants after their parents allowed them to go away with strangers who promised to feed and educate them.

MASERU Thursday, January 24, 2008 (IRIN) - For 14 years, Mathabo Mabekhla was one of Lesotho's most successful entrepreneurs. Her ladies' clothing boutique sold dresses, blouses and slacks imported from neighbouring South Africa, and boasted a client base that included cabinet ministers and their wives.

DAKAR Tuesday, January 22, 2008 (IRIN) - An anti-government rebel group in Niger has claimed responsibility for an attack on the southeastern town Tanout near the eastern humanitarian aid hub Zinder on 21 January.

BAMAKO Tuesday, January 22, 2008 (IRIN) - Financial collapse after a seven year illness and the loss of his family led Madou Traoere, 35, to flee his village of Sinzani in north eastern Mali to find a better life in the capital Bamako, but ever since he arrived seven years ago he has been living on the streets begging for scraps and small change.

OUAGADOUGOU Thursday, January 17, 2008 (IRIN) - Each year in Burkina Faso 500 girls experience unwanted pregnancies, many of them going on to abandon their newborn babies in toilets, in rubbish bins and behind buildings.