Trade : Extraordinary summit to be held on Africa's CFTA this March (PRIV)
(Kanaga Raja, Geneva)
An extraordinary summit of the African Union is scheduled to be held in Kigali, Rwanda on 21 March 2018 to consider and sign the Framework Agreement Establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA).

Maldives : State of Emergency "all-out assault on democracy," says Rights chief (PRIV)
(Kanaga Raja, Geneva)
The declaration of the State of Emergency by President Abdulla Yameen of the Maldives and the resulting suspension of constitutional guarantees "is tantamount to an all-out assault on democracy," the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, has charged.

United Nations : "No time to waste" in ending FGM (PRIV)
(IPS, New York)
More than 200 million women around the world have experienced some kind of female genital mutilation (FGM) and more could be at risk, a United Nations agency said.

Africa : One migrant's brutal odyssey through Libya (PRIV)
(IPS, Kwame Danso)
Thirty-year-old Nazir Mohammed sits on one of the two sofas in his single room in Kwame Danso, a small town about 290 kilometres north of Ghana's capital Accra, reflecting on life back in Libya.

Pakistan : Impact of climate change on Karachi may be one of biggest threats (PRIV)
(IPS, Karachi)
Historically a small fishing village, Karachi has now turned into Pakistan's biggest commerce and industrial center that generates about half of the country's tax revenue.

Opinion : Impact of media & communication on democratic participation (PRIV)
(IPS, New York)
In recent years, technological developments and the liberalization of media markets have fuelled an explosive change in media and communication, with profound implications for how people are informed, how they interact with each other, and how they participate in public life.