As Africa continues to grow and develop into great investment opportunities for world leaders, I want to focus on my personal African women leaders who are shaping and molding Africa into a better country. Joyce Banda, Malawi, President of Malawi In late 2011 I had the honor to interview Joyce Banda for AllAfrica.com as she shared highlights of [...]

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Oseph Rwagatare opines in New Times ( Rwanda )

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DESPITE pleas from international agencies to keep the fighting between combatants, Syria's war continues to inflict a staggeringly high toll on civilians. On January 15th two explosions at Aleppo University killed at least 82 people, mainly students, and left scores more wounded. Video footage from the scene showed damaged university buildings, including a dormitory, with belongings scattered on the ground.

Aleppo, Syria's most populous city and former commercial hub, has been ravaged by war since July, when rebels fighting President Bashar Assad's regime moved into the city. The university has been a noticeable hub of dissent and its students have been attacked by security forces in the past. But the school lies inside of the regime-controlled area of the city, while most of the ...

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By Hassan Abbas, Special to CNN Editor's note: Hassan Abbas is an academic and a senior advisor at the Asia Society. The views expressed are his own. Pakistan is only months away from a first: a democratically elected government is slated to hand over power to another democratically elected government. Too bad few in Pakistan [...]

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"When Nevsun began building its Bisha mine in Eritrea in 2008, it failed to conduct human rights due diligence activity and had only limited human rights safeguards in place," Human Rights Watch said.

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Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen's (R-NJ) amendment to complete the Hurricane Sandy recovery and resiliency package just passed the House by a 228-192 vote. It adds $33.7 billion to the underlying $17 billion aid bill sponsored by Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY). The final package passed by a vote of 241-180. Only 49 Republicans, mostly from the Northeast, [...]

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The real targets of the conference were never in the room. The real focus of the voodoo economics agenda are unsuspecting Diaspora Eritreans.  The retail agenda is aimed at the pocket of the working and middle class Diaspora. This time no one can be foolish enough to give the discredited bankrupt regime US$10,000.00 cash to purchase a bond without legal guarantee. So the new plan is to try to merchandise millions of stocks in unproductive, profitless and undocumented government controlled "firms" for $50, 00 or $100.00 per share etc- spreading the misery to thousands trusting Eritreans instead of 500 the so-called top investors.

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By Kira Goldenberg Patch hopes that all 903 of its hyperlocal news sites will be profitable by the end of 2013, and that many of them will have migrated to a less-newsy, more community-based platform, company president Warren Webster said on Tuesday evening. He was interviewed by Forbes media reporter Jeff Bercovici at the end of the first day of Street Fight Summit,...

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I'm a day or so late this year in wishing my Amazigh readers a happy New Year 2963. Due to other commitments I let it slip past me. But this gives me occasion to link to this report of the unprecedented Amazigh New Year's concert held in Tripoli on Saturday. As theThere has been nothing like it in Tripoli ever seen before. Libya Herald's report notes, "There has been nothing like it in Tripoli ever seen before." Further from that report:

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The Foreign Policy Association in New York asked me to write the "China in Africa" contribution for the 2013 edition of Great Decisions, an annual publication that is designed to stimulate debate on key current issues. In addition to China in Africa, the 2013 edition contains essays on the future of the Euro, Egypt, NATO, Myanmar, Iran, Intervention and Threat Assessment. The publication is available for sale for $20. Click here for information on ordering.

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Two years after the Arab spring, it seems women's rights have fallen behind. Human rights organisations are concerned that gender equality has taken a step backwards. Given the traditional nature of many of these countries, there had been hope that the revolution would improve the status of women, especially since so many had taken part in numerous street protests. Yet in Egypt, the women remain divided...

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Nigeria-the giant of West Africa-could be expected to play an outsized role in the Economic Community of West African States...

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