- ’Al-Jazeera’ journalist, Huwaida Taha Mitwalli, was sentenced to six months in jail by a criminal court in the Egyptian capital Cairo after found guilty of exposing pictures of torture. She was also fined 20,000 Egyptian pounds (US $3,518).
Huwaida Mitwalli, also a journalist of the London-based daily, Al-Quds al-ArabiAlso sentenced to the equal punishment was Al-Quds al-Arabi on charges of "possessing and giving false pictures about the internal situation in Egypt that could undermine the dignity of the country", which was in connection with an Al-Jazeera documentary she has compiled on torture in Egypt.
The Egyptian journalist has been freed on bail in Qatar.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch said the delivery date of the sentence – a day before the world celebrates press freedom – portrays the “emblematic nature of Egypt's worsening crackdown on freedom of expression.”
Egyptian security officers on 14 April arrested Abd al-Monim Mahmud, a television journalist and blogger at Cairo airport as he tried to board a plane for Sudan, where he was to work on a television story about human rights abuses in the Arab world for the London-based ‘Al-Hiwar’ satellite channel.
On 12 March, the Alexandria Court of Appeals upheld the four-year prison
sentence against another blogger, Abd al-Karim Nabil Sulaiman, who was jailed for criticising Islam and the Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak.
Mohammad al-Sharqawi, who was a victim of police torture, on 20 March returned home only to find that his laptop containing unbroadcast video of police abuse stolen. The thieves however left his cash and other valuables in the apartment intact.
afrol News - It is called "financial inclusion", and it is a key government policy in Rwanda. The goal is that, by 2020, 90 percent of the population is to have and actively use bank accounts. And in only four years, financial inclusion has doubled in Rwanda.
afrol News - The UN's humanitarian agencies now warn about a devastating famine in Sudan and especially in South Sudan, where the situation is said to be "imploding". Relief officials are appealing to donors to urgently fund life-saving activities in the two countries.
afrol News - Fear is spreading all over West Africa after the health ministry in Guinea confirmed the first Ebola outbreak in this part of Africa. According to official numbers, at least 86 are infected and 59 are dead as a result of this very contagious disease.
afrol News - It is already a crime being homosexual in Ethiopia, but parliament is now making sure the anti-gay laws will be applied in practical life. No pardoning of gays will be allowed in future, but activist fear this only is a signal of further repression being prepared.
afrol News / Africa Renewal - Ethiopia's ambitious plan to build a US$ 4.2 billion dam in the Benishangul-Gumuz region, 40 km from its border with Sudan, is expected to provide 6,000 megawatts of electricity, enough for its population plus some excess it can sell to neighbouring countries.
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