Manufacturers' Association of Nigeria (MAN) and Nigerian Textile Manufacturers Association (NTMA), has raised alarm over the systematic and deliberate destruction of the Nigerian textile industry and economy by unscrupulous Chinese textile exporters and called on the Federal government to engage the Chinese government over the matter.

Portuguese-speaking countries are focussed on improving economic and business communication with Beijing, via the Forum Macau, which they see as strengthening relations between China and the Portuguese-speaking world. The overall positive balance and the promise of greater future efforts came from the Session on Mutual Investment between China and Portuguese-speaking countries, organized in September by the Forum Macau, which recently published the speeches made by the participants.

China’s $586 billion package will be spent on affordable housing, rural infrastructure, railways, water provision, environmental protection and its power grid, things that will boost domestic consumption. To do this it will have to import resources found in Africa, which could be of some comfort to our ailing resources sector.

Chinese companies are shopping for companies in Europe and around the world, undeterred by the global financial crisis. In fact, they are hunting for bargains. Analysts and business leaders say the economic meltdown that has pummelled global stock markets may be bad news for the West, but it could be a boon to Chinese companies flush with cash and looking for places to put it — despite being burned on earlier investments.

China will work together with African countries to give full play to the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), a senior official said before leaving for the 6th FOCAC senior official meetings in Egypt. “Promoting the China-Africa new type strategic partnership serves as the common aspiration of the two sides,” Xu Jinghu, director-general of the Department of African Affairs of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said in an interview with Xinhua News Agency.

China's economy is huge and expanding rapidly. In the last 30 years the rate of Chinese economic growth has averaged 8 percent per annum. The economy has grown more than 10 times during that period, with Chinese GDP reaching US$3,42 trillion by end of last year.

A UNHCR-chartered aircraft carrying vital shelter aid for thousands of displaced civilians arrived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's (DRC) troubled North Kivu province on Thursday. The flight touched down in the provincial capital, Goma, after leaving Entebbe Airport in Uganda earlier in the day carrying 1,500 bales of plastic sheeting and three giant portable warehouses, known as Rubb halls, from UNHCR's regional stockpile in Dubai.

The lack of HIV prevention campaigns for Chinese workers in Angola is remarkable, considering how far away they are from their families, the length of time they spend away from home, and the extra cash they have left at the end of the month. Angola has an HIV prevalence rate of 2.5 percent, but it can reach 10 percent in some border areas.

Stephen Marks looks at the increasingly important role of China and other southern powers as evidenced by the recently-announced stimulus package in the face of the current global financial crisis.

Stephen Marks and Sanusha Naidu look at the the global effects of the recently announced $586bn programme of investment in infrastructure and social welfare amounting to seven percent of GDP in each of the next two years.

Greenstar builds a solar-powered community center that delivers electricity, pure water, health and education information, and a wireless Internet connection, to villages in the developing world. Greenstar records art, music, photography, legends and storytelling in traditional communities, and bring these unique, priceless products to global markets. Revenues from this "digital culture" are returned to the village to support their ongoing, independent development.

China offered a three-point proposal to boost its relations with Ethiopia, calling on the two sides to expand substantial cooperation to promote the all-round and cooperative partnership to a higher level. The offer was made during Chinese top legislator Wu Bangguo's official visit to the country from 8-10 November. China suggested that the two countries to work closer to maintain high-level exchange, cement substantial cooperation and strengthen the coordination on world affairs to safeguard the interests of the two and the other developing countries.

United Nations Democracy Fund invites civil society organizations to apply for fundingThe United Nations Democracy Fund hereby invites civil society organizations to apply for funding for projects to promote democracy. Project proposals may be submitted on-line beginning 10 November through 31 December 2008. This is the third round of funding to be launched by UNDEF, which was established by the Secretary-General in 2005 as a United Nations General Trust Fund.

The future of Zimbabwe's AIDS programmes hangs in the balance after the government failed to meet the deadline of Thursday 6 November to return over US$7 million to the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Over 500 women and men, citizens, representing people’s organisations from 41 countries across Asia and Europe joined together in Beijing between the 13th and 15th October 2008 at the 7th Asia Europe People’s Forum to work ‘For Social and Ecological Justice.’ We focussed on developing strategies and recommendations to our elected representatives, and to ourselves, as active citizens, for ‘Peace and Security,’ ‘Social and Economic Rights, and Environmental Justice’ and ‘Participatory Democracy and Human Rights.’

Global TV studio manager Daudet Lukombo was acquitted by a local magistrate’s court in Kinshasa/Gombe and was released from Kinshasa penitentiary at around 4 p.m., ending 41 days in detention. He was arrested during a police raid on the privately-owned TV station on the night of 11 September, after it broadcast a news conference by opposition legislator Ne Muanda Semi, the head of the controversial Bundu dia Kongo movement.

Portuguese banks that received transfers of money to Angolan politicians implicated in illegal arms sales have kept mum after the Lisbon paper Público reported their involvement. The Banco de Portugal, the country’s central bank, has remained silent, and the banks mentioned by the newspaper declined to comment in response to queries from IPS Monday, invoking the law on bank secrecy.

States, while exercising their sovereign right to determine who enters and remains in their territory, have an obligation to protect the human rights of migrants, according to a new report produced by the Global Migration Group, of which UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is a member. The report was produced to mark this year’s 60th anniversary of the affirmation of universal human rights.

Non-profit internet provider GreenNet has recently released a new ultra-low power computer. The tiny computer can run on a car battery for hours and uses a maximum of nine watts of electricity. Sustainable in almost every way – from its fabrication, to its distribution and consumption – the E2 also comes fully equipped with free and open source operating systems.

A West African regional court ruled Monday that the government of Niger had failed to protect a young woman sold into slavery at the age of 12. The landmark ruling, the first of its kind by a regional tribunal now sitting in Niamey, Niger’s capital, ordered the government to pay about $19,000 in damages to the woman, Hadijatou Mani, who is now 24.