China will lend Gabon 37.2 billion CFA francs on concessionary terms to part-fund a hydroelectric dam scheme, the central African country's presidency said in a statement published on Saturday. The "Grand Poubara" hydro scheme is linked to a $3 billion Chinese-led project to mine iron ore at Belinga, which is a key plank in government efforts to wean Gabon's middle-income economy away from dependence on declining oil production.

China on Saturday formally opened a new embassy in Malawi, after the poor southern African nation announced last week it was switching its diplomatic allegiance from Taipei to Beijing. "We have officially established diplomatic relations to serve the common aspirations of the people of the two countries," Zhai Ju, assistant foreign minister and special envoy to Chinese President Hu Jintao, said in a prepared speech obtained by AFP.

Chinese government donated 300,000 US dollars humanitarian aid to Kenyan Red Cross Society on Monday. "A friend in need is a friend indeed," Chinese Ambassador to Kenya Zhang Ming said in the handover ceremony, adding the Chinese government and its people had enjoyed a "deep friendship" with the Kenyan. "During the current difficult time, the Chinese government and its people are highly concerned about the humanitarian situation in Kenya, and that's why we made donations one after another," said the ambassador.

bilaterals.org, GRAIN and BIOTHAI are launching a collaborative publication, "Fighting FTAs: The growing resistance to bilateral free trade and investment agreements". While global trade talks at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) stagnate, governments and corporations are busy spinning a complex web of bilateral free trade and investment agreements (FTAs). "Fighting FTAs" looks at what this FTA frenzy is really about, how social movements are fighting back and strategic learnings emerging from these struggles.

Medecins Sans Frontieres, a French aid group, has pulled its international workers out of Somalia after what appeared to be the targeted killings of a number of its staff. The suspension came on Friday, four days after a roadside bomb in Kismayu, south-west of the capital, Mogadishu, killed three employees and two other people.

Safe abortion—the termination of a pregnancy by trained health care providers using correct, sanitary technique and proper equipment—is a simple, lifesaving health service. Nonetheless, of the 42 million induced abortions each year, an estimated 20 million are unsafe and 97% of those occur in developing countries. Every year, nearly 70,000 women die unnecessarily from the complications of unsafe abortions, and countless more suffer infections, infertility, and debilitating injuries.

imbabwe’s private newspaper publishing companies face imminent collapse in the wake of prohibitive production costs which have since been compounded by an acute shortage of locally produced newsprint. Mutare Board and Paper Mills (MBPM) warned of severe shortages of newsprint owing to intermittent power cuts, coal and foreign currency shortages. Executives in the newspaper industry confirmed to MISA-Zimbabwe that the dire situation had forced them to drastically reduce their print runs.

According to Humanity.org, these are the top 10 Social Activist Sites: The World Revolution, Ashoka, Changemakers, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Earth Fund, Afribike, Grupa hajdeda da…, The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), Youth Against Aids (YAA). The website also provides information on websites related to political, environmental, economic and volunteer sites.

The social network, Change.org provides information on particular issues (global warning, poverty, HIV/AIDS), by providing a space for people to form communities and educate themselves on different topics and interests. It also provides links to non-profit organizations, fundraising campaigns and other networks that are useful for activists, academics and practitioners alike.

The Chinese government has donated US$500,000 humanitarian aid to Somalia through the World Health Organization (WHO) in Nairobi. China and Somalia enjoy cordial relationship, and the friendship cherished by the two countries and peoples have been developed continuously since China and Somalia established diplomatic ties in the year of 1960, said Zhang Ming, Chinese Ambassador to Kenya, at the hand-over ceremony.

Crude oil exports from Sudan to China more than doubled last year to top 200,000 barrels a day, with official data showing that China now takes 40 percent of the east African producer’s total output. Sudan exported 10.31 million tonnes to China in 2007, or 113 percent above 2006, ranking as Beijing’s sixth-largest crude supplier, with 6 percent of the total crude imports to the world’s second-largest oil user, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.

UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, calls for stronger commitment to end female genital mutilation/cutting. We call on governments to protect the rights of women and girls. We call on leaders to take action to end female genital mutilation in line with the United Nations resolution adopted last year. In the resolution, governments reiterated that female genital mutilation violates the rights of women and girls. They said the practice constitutes an irreparable, irreversible abuse.

Campaigners from War on Want, Friends of the Earth and the World Development Movement staged a demonstration today (Friday, 25 January) against European Union policies which they warn threaten millions of livelihoods in developing countries. The London protest at the European Commission office came on the eve of trade ministers’ special lunch on Saturday at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort Davos.

The Palestine Solidarity Committee is proud to participate in the fourth consecutive International Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW), the key event being a public rally with Azmi Bishara on the 3rd of February at the Careers Centre in Soweto. The rally will be broadcast to the other participants of the global Israeli Apartheid Week in the US, Canada, UK, Palestine amongst other countries and will serve as the international launch pad for their respective IAW campaigns.

Commonwealth environment ministers will discuss the benefits of ‘carbon financing’ when they meet in February 2008. The ministers will meet next month in Monaco to look at how carbon financing can best be used to protect forests. They will also discuss the political and capacity constraints countries face when developing carbon finance initiatives.

World leaders have issued a joint statement at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos vowing to make 2008 a turning point in the fight against poverty. The world is facing a “development emergency”, they said. “We pledge to work together to help the world get back on track to meet the MDGs.”

For 14 years, Mathabo Mabekhla was one of Lesotho's most successful entrepreneurs. Her ladies' clothing boutique sold dresses, blouses and slacks imported from neighbouring South Africa, and boasted a client base that included cabinet ministers and their wives. But dwindling sales forced her to shut down last year, for which she blames the country's growing community of Chinese retailers. "Chinese are selling very cheap and not good quality things, and they are killing Basotho businesses," said Mabekhla, 59.

Fahamu is a pan African organisation committed to building a strong human rights and social justice movement. In a unique collaboration between Oxford University’s Department for Continuing Education, Fahamu is pleased to announce a course on Investigating and monitoring human rights violations. This facilitated workshop-based training will run from the 23 April 2008 to 4th May 2008 (2 weeks). Cost per person for this course is USD 1,000 per week. Participants will in addition get a CDROM of the distance learning course ABSOLUTELY FREE for personal study and reference. Booking deadline: February 8, 2008. For more information on these and other Fahamu courses, including how to enroll, call us on 020 2 319 635/6 or email us on [email][email protected] More information can be found on our websites www.fahamu.org and www.pambazuka.org

Fahamu is a pan African organisation committed to building a strong human rights and social justice movement. In a unique collaboration between Oxford University’s Department for Continuing Education, Fahamu is pleased to announce a course on Leadership and Management for Change. This facilitated workshop will run from the 4th-8th February 2008 in Nairobi. Cost per person for this course is Kshs 85,000.00. Participants will, in addition, get a CDROM of the distance learning course ABSOLUTELY FREE for personal study and reference. Booking deadline: January 30, 2008 (very few spaces remaining. For more information on these and other Fahamu courses, including how to enroll, call us on 020 2 319 635/6 or email us on [email][email protected] More information can be found on our websites www.fahamu.org and www.pambazuka.org

The Advisory Group on Civil Society and Aid Effectiveness (the AG) has mandated CCIC (the Canadian Council for International Co-operation) to organize an AG International Forum in Gatineau, Québec, on 3-6 February 2008, on the roles of civil society organizations (CSOs) as development actors within the current Aid Effectiveness Agenda. The AG is a body created by the Working Party on Aid Effectiveness of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the OECD.