China is considering including more African goods in a list of products excluded from import tariffs as a way of further boosting trade with the continent, state media said on Sunday. China already levies no import tariffs on more than 10 types of goods imported from 31 African countries, including textiles, machinery and farm products, the official Xinhua news agency said.

China will fully implement the eight measures for China-Africa practical cooperation agreed at the Beijing Summit of Forum on China-Africa Cooperation despite the ongoing global financial crisis, Assistant Foreign Minister Zhai Jun said Thursday.

As China enters the “Year of the Ox”, there is much to reflect on from the past 12 months and even more to speculate about regarding the coming year. 2008 began with devastating snowstorms that paralysed most of central and southern China’s transport system, interrupting lives and causing severe material damage. Then came the riots in Tibet, which caught the government off guard, followed by embarrassing protests over China’s Olympic torch relay in several Western and Asian countries.

The Liberian government has signed a $2.6 billion agreement with a Chinese company, China Union, to excavate for iron ore at the country's western former Bong Mines. The agreement, signed Thursday, is said to be the biggest ever investment in Liberia.

Brazil hopes to supply drivers worldwide with the fuel of the future - cheap ethanol derived from sugarcane. It is considered an effective antidote to climate change, but hundreds of thousands of Brazilian plantation workers harvest the cane at slave wages.

The South-South Experience Exchange Facility is a new multi donor trust fund that promotes the idea that the development successes in one country can be replicated in another. The trust fund has identified other areas suited for this financing including managing commodity windfalls; developing efficient tax systems; adapting to new technologies; creating social safety nets that benefit the poor; and trade integration and investment climate.

The World Bank’s decision to shut out four Chinese firms from taking part in any of its projects around the world is likely to draw a cold reaction from African countries, many of which have turned to the Far East for economic partnerships. Political analysts say the World Bank’s move against the firms – three of which have lucrative infrastructure contracts in Kenya – is bound to be interpreted as a move against China’s growing political and economic clout in Africa by Western economic powers.

The work to establish three to five economic and trade cooperation zones in Africa has proceeded smoothly, China’s Minister of Commerce Chen Deming said recently. The China-Africa Development Fund, aimed at encouraging and supporting Chinese enterprises investing in Africa, has also already invested nearly 400 million USD.

The first has to do with commodity prices. The second is the seeming retreat from Africa of investors and entrepreneurs from China, which is surprising. Until recently, it appeared that Africa's dependence on commodity exports would not hinder its economic rise. Growth rates of more than 5 percent for the last few years have been fuelled by the large increases in international commodity prices.

India expects to triple trade with Africa over the next five years to reach $100 billion, officials said on Wednesday, as it tries to strengthen ties in a region where Asian rival China has made rapid inroads. Despite an economic slowdown, India is planning a slew of projects in agriculture, small industry, mining, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), oil pipelines, chemical industry, power generation and transmission among others.

China has lost its first ever WTO dispute on auto parts and faces a new challenge on alleged export subsidies to a broad range of consumer goods. On the offensive side, Beijing has initiated a case against US countervailing duties on steel and other products.

The Seventh Session of India-Tanzania Joint Commission on Economic, Technical and Scientific Cooperation was held in New Delhi from 13-14 January 2009. The Indian delegation was led by Mr. Nalin Surie, Secretary (West), Ministry of External Affairs and the Tanzanian delegation by Hon. Prof. David H. Mwakyusa, MP, Minister of Health & Social Welfare of Tanzania.

Seeking organisations to expand and strengthen the network of human rights organisations in Nigeria, Mexico, and Russia that provide the basic infrastructure for a national human rights culture based on the rule of law. Grants are awarded only to organisations that define clear objectives for their work and measures of progress toward those objectives. The foundation provides multi-year support. Deadline: Rolling deadline.

Awarding innovators from around the world who use technology to benefit humanity. Individuals, for-profit companies, and not-for-profit organisations are eligible to apply. The purpose of the Tech Awards programme is to inspire future scientists, technologists, and dreamers to harness the power and "promise of technology to solve the challenges that confront us at the dawn of the 21st Century". Deadline: March 27 2009

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For Stephen Marks, given the interdependency between the United States and China, President Obama will have to tread carefully on trade as well human rights issues. He cautions there is a “danger of mounting economic crisis converting into political instability in which the smallest miscalculation, in Washington or Beijing could have unforeseen consequences.”

Amidst the deepening international financial crisis, China’s foreign minister, Yang Jiechi, allayed African fears that Beijing would be downscaling its trade and investments across the continent. Speaking during the final leg of his African visit in South Africa, Yang confirmed that China . He also added that Africa was not insulated from the global credit crisis and therefore by working together in international meetings, China and African governments can lead the way towards reforming the international financial architecture and contribute to global economic stability.

Horace Campbell’s is a timely and necessary call on the African person to seriously reflect the Zimbabwean condition in the light of the so-called neocolonial/neo-imperialist politics.

While we do not deny the horrors of these 'neo-influences', we sadly underline the tendency to over-emphasise them and the failure to see Mugabe & Co.'s ugliness. I was participant in the CODESSRIA Conference, and, yes, the argument by Mamdani, Shivji... (lead proponents of the Statement) about Zimbabwe seemed intellectually so strained (a colleague saw it as vacuous!).

Of course to talk of military intervention in Zimbabwe is naive, but to continue praising Mugabe's banal conceptualisation of 'independent Zimbabwe' is surely a madness.

The incoming Obama administration will need to put human rights at the heart of foreign, domestic, and security policy if it is to undo the enormous damage of the Bush years, Human Rights Watch said in issuing its World Report 2009. US leadership in promoting human rights will be vital, Human Rights Watch said, because at present the most energetic and organized diplomacy addressing human rights is negative - conducted by nations trying to avoid scrutiny of their own and their allies' abuses.

Guinea's military government has announced reforms which they say will include a review of mining contracts. Guinea has one of the world's biggest reserves of aluminium ore, and is a major exporter. The government says it has created a new committee to examine and revise mining contracts in the country.