Latest news & blogs

In the wake of the terrible tradegy non journalists in SE Asia have been using blogs to get their stories and information out to the wider world.

Millions have been made homeless or had their lives devastated; the poor have been worst affected. Oxfam, CAFOD and other NGOs are there, but more donations and political pressure (particularly on the Indonesian government) are requested.

Deyda Hydara, editor of The Point newspaper and correspondent for the AFP news agency and Reporters Withour Borders was shot dead in Banjul. Hydara has been an outspoken critic of government attempts to muzzle the press and silence dissident voices.

but the Orange Revolution will not have succeded unless these elections go ahead peacefully and are free of fraud, and Ukraine gets a legitimate president at last. Putin warns the west against isolating Russia with its stand on the elections.

The Rwandan army appears to have crossed back into north-eastern DRC as Medecins Sans Frontieres pull out, and a DRC military commander is transferred in an attempt to end clashes between factions of the army in the province.

But the public sector isn't sufficiently prepared, says a Whitehall report.

Yusuf Islam, the singer formerly known as Cat Stevens, has received the "Man for Peace" Award 2004. At a ceremony in Rome, the former Soviet President praised him for his charity work and for standing by his convictions, despite personal hardships. Yusuf Islam wasrecently denied entrance to the United States.

A new film by Danny Schechter that shows the media broadcasting a pro-war narrative driven by jingoism, not journalism. Trailer and info

A network of community computer centres, linked by wireless technology, is providing a helping hand for poor farmers in Peru.

Millions can now say "jambo", or hello, to new Open Source office software in Swahili.