The governments of Malawi and China have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) which would now engage the private sector from the South Asian country to invest in the southern African country's various investment sectors including cotton and tobacco.

May 17th is the International Day against Homophobia. ILGA, the International Lesbian and Gay Association, has chosen this date to launch a yearly report on State-sponsored homophobia around the world. The impressive collection of laws presented in this report is an attempt to show the extent of State-sponsored homophobia in the world.

The Digital Standards Organization (Digistan) and its supporters are calling on governments around the globe to use only free and open standards. The organisation, which was set up to defend and promote open digital standards, plans to adopt the Hague Declaration on May 21. Organisations and individuals supporting the effort are also being asked to sign the declaration.

With the ascendance of China as a robust force on Africa’s economic and political scene, plans are afoot in the European Union (EU) to pre-empt the Asian nation’s dominance on the continent by forming a trilateral partnership that places Europe squarely in the centre. The idea of a multilateral triumvirate was conceived by Louis Michel, the EU’s commissioner for development and humanitarian aid, and seeks to lay out common ground in what has occasionally been a contentious relationship between these three actors.

The consultation proposed by the WSF International Council (IC) is already online at It aims to identify objectives of action that will allow us to reinforce even more the dialogue and the construction of alliances between various organizations, movements and networks from the Pan-Amazon region and from the world.

Whereas: Given the role of the Senate as a collective conscience of AUC, expressed in the many resolutions adopted over the years denouncing Israeli brutality and systematic racist policies against Palestinians and their basic rights, we propose the following resolution in support of Palestinian academics and institutions of learning:

The 3rd Universal Periodic Review of the Human Rights Council (HRC) will be taking place from 1 - 12 December 2008. The countries that will be reviewed at this session are: Botswana, Bahamas, Burundi, Luxembourg, Barbados, Montenegro, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Liechtenstein, Serbia, Turkmenistan, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Colombia, Uzbekistan, Tuvalu.

Acclaimed writer and activist Naomi Klein is speaking in London, hosted by War on Want as part of the Hands Off Iraqi Oil coalition, and tickets are going fast! The event is the London launch of the paperback edition of her latest book, Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Klein, award winning journalist and author of the renowned anti-globalisation manual No Logo, will be at Friends Meeting House on 19 May. War on Want has criticised Gordon Brown for involving corporations that have been widely attacked for deepening poverty and undermining human rights in his latest scheme to combat global poverty.

An increasing number of Chinese-owned kissarias (stores) are springing up in Casablanca, Morocco’s economic centre. While some Moroccan merchants decry what they consider unfair price competition and poor merchandise quality, the government is working to impose controls.

British Airways has been criticised over its handling of a forced deportation and its treatment of Nigerian passengers on a flight from Heathrow airport. Passengers on board the 27 March BA flight to Lagos began to protest about the manhandling of Augustine Eme, a Biafran independence activist, who was allegedly being restrained by up to five police officers while pleading not to be sent back to Nigeria where he feared he would be killed. (Eme's brother has already been killed and his wife and children are missing.)

Africa's trade unions called on their governments to nullify the interim trade agreements they have signed with the European Union, saying they leave African nations "weak" within the global market. "We join the call for the nullification of the interim EPAs and for appropriate time to be given for negotiating new trade relations between Africa and Europe that take account of Africa's genuine needs for development and regional integration," said International Trade Union Confederation-Africa (ITUC-Africa) secretary general Kwasi Adu-Amankwah on Thursday (1 May), according to a report by AFP.

Lawyers from East Africa and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) are seeking legal action against the Chinese government over arms supplies to Zimbabwe. The East African Law Society and the Law Society of the Southern Africa Development Community say they have finalised preparations to institute legal action at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

More than 80 percent of high blood pressure disease occurs in the developing world, and mostly among younger adults, researchers said on Thursday in a report that belies the image of hypertension as a disease of harried, overfed rich people.

The European Union military force in Chad does not have enough troops to escort humanitarian convoys in the conflict-torn eastern region where a French aid worker was killed by gunmen, a force spokesman said on Friday.

Mounting evidence in recent years suggests that the economic policies promoted and enforced by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) may be preventing developing countries from being able to spend more in their national budgets, with important consequences for health and education budgets being constrained at unnecessarily low levels at a time when major increases are needed.

Corruption is a cosmopolitan problem. However, its adverse effects on less-developed countries are perhaps more profound due to the fact that it has greatly affected the potential for governments in such countries to meet the basic needs and expectations of the common people. There is, therefore, a pressing need for a sustained effort to nip the seemingly elusive problem of corruption in the bud, so to speak. This study endeavours to conceptualise the nature, causes, and effects of the scourge.

Thank you for the helpful analysis!

It shows well the Gates contradictions. A major point missed in the article, however, is that AGRA capitalists do not only want to position themselves, against China, to be the suppliers of seed and agricultural inputs to poor African farmers. They are also advancing full speed ahead in stealing African bioresources. AGRA will greatly assist the theft and patenting (biopiracy) of African indigenous strains, something already happening in Kenya as they genetically modify sorghum.

Corporations with falling rates of profit from overproduction, as Gabirondo correctly points out, need new markets. But they also need lower cost or free inputs, such as biodiverse food crops. This theft of seed ('accumulation by dispossession' - David Harvey) adds to profit more quickly than dreams of future markets.

Further, rather than allowing them to use the word, 'philanthropy,' let's call it private ownership of Africa's gene pool. The corporations are financing research after African governments have been systematically removed from agricultural extension, research and marketing since 1981, according to the neoliberal agenda. African agriculture does need assistance, but what the Gates Foundation is doing is not a gift, for the program is taking genetic wealth much more valuable any billions of dollars.

In today's globalized world, tax evasion is occurring on a massive scale. As corporations and wealthy individuals shift their assets into offshore tax havens, the estimated loss in global tax revenues is now estimated to be $500 billion a year. This huge tax loss is hobbling the ability of governments to provide vital services to their societies.

Humanitarian Agenda 2015: The State of the Humanitarian Enterprise describes the challenges faced by humanitarian actors striving to maintain fidelity to their ideals in a globalized world. The report highlights persisting tensions in the relationship between “outsiders” and local communities, encroachments of political agendas – particularly as a result of the war on terror – and the deteriorating security climate for humanitarian workers on the ground.

‘Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women’, the third Millennium Development Goal is a priority of the Dutch government. More action is needed to truly create a society where men and women are equal and enjoy the same rights and opportunities. Concrete action is called for to achieve equality between women and men. As a result Dutch NGO’s, companies and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have decided to put their back into the fund: MDG3 Fund:Investing in Equality to contribute to the realization of Millennium Development Goal 3.