Kenya’s recent history has been dotted with several intense episodes of land-ownership conflict, starting in the early 1950s with the bloody repression of the Mau Mau movement by the British colonial power. This conflict caused 11 000 deaths among the rebels and also prompted the first regrouping of agricultural lands in Kenya. Access to land in this former European colony is still to this day a particularly hotly disputed issue.

The Chinese dissident Rebiya Kadeer is in Australia to raise awareness about the plight of China's Uighur people. She joins the Dalai Lama and Steven Spielberg in trying to use the Beijing Olympics to turn global attention to China's human rights record. Kadeer spoke briefly to Phil Mercer, who sends this report from Sydney.

Mauritanian refugees stuck in Senegal for nearly two decades after fleeing ethnic clashes in their home country have begun returning to Mauritania under a U.N. sponsored program. But many do not want to return. VOA's Nico Colombant has more from Dakar, with reporting by Ebrima Sillah on the border between the two countries.

In the last century, more than 100 million people have perished in violent conflict, very often because of local clashes between ethnically or culturally distinct groups. In a novel study this week in Science, researchers report on a mathematical model that can predict where ethnic conflict will erupt.

The Yezidi minority has so far stayed well out of Iraq's internecine battles, but violence with their Muslim neighbours has escalated following the murder of a girl who apparently converted to Islam.