US Naval commander starts cooperation strengthening visit - US Naval commander starts cooperation strengthening visit - [ANGOP - Angola Press] [AA Angola]

US seeks to increment cooperation with Angola - US seeks to increment cooperation with Angola - [ANGOP - Angola Press] [AA Angola]

Mozambique: Bridge Will Come to Catembe, Promises Simango - The candidate of Mozambique's ruling Frelimo Party for mayor of Maputo, David Simango, on Saturday promised residents of Catembe that a bridge will soon be built across Maputo Bay, linking Catembe to the centre of the city. [AA Construction]

NCOP to decide next week on Professions Bill public hearings - NCOP to decide next week on Professions Bill public hearings - The National Council of Provinces' (NCOP's) Select Committee on Public Services will decide next week whether or not it would host further public hearings into the contentious Built Environment Professions Bill.

Nigeria: Court Halts Construction Works on Ex-Minister's Multi-Million Naira Complex - An Abuja high court, last Friday, granted an interim injunction stopping construction works on a multi-million naira complex in the FCT belonging to former Information Minister, Chukwuemeka Chikelu. [AA Construction]

SA’s first black construction-major CEO speaks on transformation, performance and market outlook - SA’s first black construction-major CEO speaks on transformation, performance and market outlook - ‘Youngest’ and ‘first’ are two terms new Aveng CEO Roger Jardine is very familiar with. [Engineering News] [AAN SA Blogs]

Nigeria: Confusion Trails Probe of Airport's N23 Billion Expenditure in A'ibom - As Akwa Ibom State Government continues to unravel the exact amount that was paid for the airport project in which no significant work level has been realised, the enquiry is getting messier each day, as there are confusion over the expenditure of over N23 billion. [AA Construction]

by David Parker. October 12, 2008. Interview with Jon Elmer.

In the 2007 publication “Hollow Land“, Eyal Weizman, the Israeli-born, London-based architect, reconceptualized geopolitics in the Occupied Territories. The political space created by Israeli apartheid is a web of total domination and control over Palestinians. The architecture and urban planning inside the territories demonstrate a late-modern colonial occupation. Israel owns the subterranean aquifers beneath Gaza and the West Bank, controls the airspace above, and has weaved a web of Israeli only settlements, highways, and security perimeters throughout the West Bank, while turning Gaza into an open-air prison.

According to Weizman, the natural and built features of the landscape function as weapons and ammunition for the conflict. The Occupied Territories have become a series of layers and territories, each manipulated by the Israeli authorities. Borders are porous for Israelis but solid for Palestinians. Checkpoints are a source of humiliation.

The political power of Israel re-inscribes relationships of force in the organization of the built environment. Contemporary urban warfare in the West Bank and Gaza is a constant destruction and construction of space. At the root of the warfare lies Israeli racism and colonialism.