Agathon Rwasa - http://agathonrwasa.blogspot.com/2005/10/fnl-kill-twenty-civilians-since-early.html is a blog dedicated to bringing Burundi rebel group FNL’s (Forces nationales de liberation) leader Agathon Rwasa to justice and highlighting the atrocities of FNL.

“Twenty civilians have died at the hands of the FNL since early September, according to the Burundian human rights group Ligue Iteka. The group has also raised concerns about eleven killings by government forces, together with reports of torture and arbitrary arrests. There has been no further news on the whereabouts of Agathon Rwasa, who was reportedly deposed by a pro-peace faction of the FNL eight days ago.”

Despite an arrest warrant for crimes against humanity it seems Agathon Rwasa is still being welcomed in Tanzania! There is a full list of astrocities committed by Agathon Rwasa on the blog.

Mzansi Afrika - Mzansi Afrika (http://mzansiafrika.typepad.com/mzansi_afrika/2005/10/africa_digital_.html)
reports on how European and American recycling firms use Africa as a dumping ground for useless equipment. This saves the expense of having to recycle properly.

“Re-use is a good thing, bridging the digital divide is a good thing, but exporting loads of technotrash in the name of these lofty ideals and seriously damaging the environment and health of poor communities in developing countries is criminal,” said Jim Puckett, coordinator of BAN who led the field investigation."

No holes barred, Egyptian blogger Sandmonkey –
Sandmonkey (http://egyptiansandmonkey.blogspot.com ) takes shots at George Galloway “I wanna see that bastard go down” , Syria “Syria fakes own support rally” and even George Bush has “crossed the line” for suing the Onion (the US’s “Alternative News Weekly).

Subzero Blue - Subzeroblue (http://feeds.feedburner.com/SubzeroBlue?m=924) announces the BBC’s decision to set up a new Arabic TV channel.

“The World Service says its new Arabic language television service is 'part of a wide-ranging package of proposals aimed at maintaining and enhancing BBC World Service's pre-eminent position and impact in an emerging multimedia age.' The Arabic channel, due to launch in 2007, forms part of a £30 million (U.S.$53 million) package of new initiatives."

What is interesting about this development is what is happening elsewhere. The BBC is cutting most of it’s Eastern European language provision. Could this have anything to do with the “death of communism” in these countries and rise of “anti West” in the Arabic speaking world? Also the Arabic News channel al- Jazeera is planning to start an English language service soon. How unsubtle can you get?

ZimPundit - Zimpundit (http://zimpundit.blogspot.com/2005/10/twenty-seven-mdc-members-file-sena...) reports that 27 members of the MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) have filed papers with the Nomination Court without party leader Morgan Tsvangirai's approval. Zimpundit asks the important question:

“How are the standing political parties going to respond to these renegade candidates? Assuming (and this is unlikely), that the MDC will indeed expel those that did file papers without their party leader's sanction, the candidates are now outsiders to the party. They leave it with their resources and supporters, making MDC a much weaker political party. Let's not forget that the candidates are from the same provinces that the MDC has been walloping ZANU, we're talking a large chunk of their rural base.”

And ends with:

“There's a lot that could happen. This whole senate thing is turning out to be much more compelling than I had expected!”

Musings of a Naija Man - Musings of a NaijaMan (http://uknaija.blogspot.com/2005/10/unanswered-questions-from-nigerias.html) takes time to ask some pertinent but unpleasant questions around the death of Mrs Stella Obasanjo who died at the weekend following liposuction surgery in Spain and the misinformation broadcast following the Bellevue plane crash that killed 117 people.

“Why did it take so long to determine where the crash site was? Where did the "government official" who announced that there were 50 survivors get information. Why was the Nigerian First Lady having cosmetic surgery done? Who was footing the bill?”

* Sokari Ekine produces the blog Black Looks,