The News Review:

- Senegal court jails nine gay men
- Iamgold appoints senior VP to head African ops
- Senegal: Paul Thiao ‘Farmers Have Become Gamblers’
- Senegal rights organization sets up “law shops”

Senegal court jails nine gay men
BBC News UK 
Homosexual acts are illegal in Senegal but the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) told the BBC it was “shocked by the ruling”. The judge added three years to a five-year sentence saying the men were also members of a criminal group. Most of them belonged to an association set up to fight HIV and Aids. “This is the first time that the Senegalese legal system has handed down such a harsh sentence against gays” said Issa Diop one of the men’s four defence lawyers.

Iamgold appoints senior VP to head African ops
Creamer Media’s Mining Weekly South Africa 
Toronto-based Iamgold owns the Mupane gold mine in Botswana has interests in the Sadiola and Yatela mines in Mali which it owns with AngloGold Ashanti owns a stake in Gold Fields’ Tarkwa mine in Ghana and is exploring at its own Boto project in Senegal. The firm also announced last month that it has agreed to buy ttawa-based rezone Resources which owns the Essakane gold project in Burkina Faso. Chandler will establish a corporate office in Dakar Senegal and will be responsible for the group’s African operations and for building relationships with joint venture partners governments and local communitiesIamgold said on Thursday. The company has also indicated that it wants to pursue further growth in West Africa. “Brian further expands our executive team and has the mining expertise and experience to deliver on our aggressive growth objectives in Africa” said Iamgold president and CE Joseph Conway.

Senegal: Paul Thiao ‘Farmers Have Become Gamblers’
AllAfrica.com Washington 
IRIN spoke with Paul Thiao farmer and regional coordinator of the Senegalese Federation of NGs (FNGS) which represents 32 farmer associations about the weather-related challenges rural communities face. “In the past people followed traditional ways to plan for the [agricultural] seasons. The village elders would interpret the position of the stars to know when the rains would start and finish. GA_googleFillSlot( “AllAfrica_Story_Inset” );”If a certain bird sang or the tamarind or baobab tree started to grow leaves then you knew the rain would come.
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Senegal rights organization sets up “law shops”
Le Mali en ligne Mali 
The “law shops” run by volunteers constitute a place for dialogue dissemination of information and guidelines on judicial procedures he told a press conference in Dakar. These shops are in Kaolack in Central Senegal Diourbel centre-west Thiès West and Dakar. With the support of the European Union as part of its cooperation with Senegal NDH plans to extend these “law shops” to all parts of the country by 2012. The groups targeted by these structures are women the youth handicapped detainees elderly sex workers and urban and rural populations.