Massawa - In the centuries-old Eritrean port of Massawa, the streets are so quiet that pedestrians' footsteps can be heard echoing off the buildings in its crumbling old town.

Asmara - Crushed tanks and trucks destroyed in Eritrea's war for independence from Ethiopia are piled up on the outskirts of Asmara, a rusting testament to a long and bloody history of conflict.

Asmara - Eritrea's government is guilty of committing crimes against humanity since independence a quarter-century ago with up to 400,000 people "enslaved", and should face international justice, a UN probe said Wednesday.

Rome - An illegal immigrant in Italy jumped into the Tiber river and successfully saved a drowning woman. The immigrant has been rewarded with a one-year permit to live in Rome.

Tripoli - Three of those beheaded in Libya by IS had earlier lived in Israel where they sought refugee status before being deported.

Brussels - Remember how just a few years ago one of the most pressing issue to world peace and security seemed to be the sundry band of pirates off the coast of Somalia that was wreaking havoc across the Gulf of Aden by pillaging and plundering trade lanes?

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), over 20 million people in the Sahel region are at risk of hunger and will need humanitarian assistance in 2014, around 8.7 million more than in 2013.

EDUN, the fashion company founded by rock star Bono and his wife Ali Hewson, has teamed up with well-known denim brand Diesel. Products sourced or made entirely in Africa will be available in Spring 2013, all bearing the "Diesel+EDUN" label.

Israel has begun the deportation of illegal immigrant workers who came from South Sudan. More are to be repatriated to their nation of origin in the days to come.

Cape Town - High-ranking naval officers from 50 countries will be converging on Cape Town, South Africa, for the third edition of the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) which seeks to increase safety and stability in the Indian Ocean Rim region.

While groups like Reporters Without Borders and PEN International have been pushing an effort to get the plight of journalists detained for a decade in Eritrea attention little is appearing in mainstream media.

What happens when going to work at a legitimate business means a prison sentence? Would you take the risk or hide hoping for a means of escape? In Eritrea that is a reality for journalists. Aaron Berhane lived that nightmare.

Image if tomorrow you went out to buy your favorite newspaper and it wasn't there, only newspapers that were put out by the government. On September 18, 2001 that was the reality in Eritrea.

Ten years ago press freedom was taken away in the country of Eritrea, in the Horn of Africa. In September 2001 all privately owned print media was closed down by the government with many of the native journalists arrested and detained in prison.

There is reportedly growing evidence that Eritrea, like other countries in the horn of Africa, is suffering famine despite government's claims that the population has the food it needs.

A film that follows journalists Nikahang Kowsar, Mir Mahdavi, Mohsin Abbas, Aaron Berhane and Mike Odongkara, "So Far From Home" has been nominated for a Gemini award.

Yonas Embye has been holding weekly one man protest in Uganda calling for the release of Eritrean journalists held unjustly in his native country Eritrea. The journalist and rights activist was jailed for four years before he eventually escaped.

Adelaide - The USA, China and Australia all share one thing in common today -- they have been found to be three of the top-ten most environmentally destructive countries in the world.

If anyone had been on site with a camera during the event, the formation of a giant crack in the north of Ethiopia in 2005 could have been a scene for the upcoming apocalypse movie 2012.

2009 will be remembered for many things, from Obama's victory and Michael Jackson kicking the bucket to swine flu and the economic meltdown. It will also be remembered for some serious violations of press freedom.