The Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation organises three events this year, all related to our What Next project. In addition, we are also inviting all old and new friends present in Nariboi to an informal gathering in the evening of the 22 January at Boulevard Hotel.

Forty years after Israel's occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, and almost 60 years after the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe) of 1948, the Palestinian people are at a critical juncture. Global solidarity and support will be decisive in enabling the Palestinian people's struggle for freedom, justice and durable peace to prevail.

The press is in crisis; the worst crisis in its history. For the past three years newspapers and news magazines in France, including Le Monde diplomatique, and almost everywhere in the world have been steadily losing readers. Their delicate economic balance is upset, their survival threatened and, with it, the democratic right to express a range of opinions.

The ECSS 2007 will be held in Trieste, Italy, from 10 to 14 September 2007. The conference is organized by "Abdus Salam" International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) and Regional Agency for the Environmental Protection of Friuli Venezia Giulia (ARPA FVG).

The World Social Forum is widely celebrated as an ‘open space’ that has no clearly defined political programme of its own – other than its Charter of Principles - but rather provides a relatively free and undirected space for all those interested in exchanging ideas and experience about the state of the world, or in developing their own programmes, to do so.

Police on Friday (5 January 2007) arrested the former Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Bank of Commerce, Development and Industry (BCDI), Alfred Kalisa on corruption and office abuse-related charges he allegedly committed at the time he was at the bank's helm.

"As some of us predicted several years ago, Mr. George W. Bush’s policies have now hit the fan. It may be instructive to go back and read what Wayne Brown and I were saying four years, three years and two years ago. You may not have to do that, because what we said then is now being echoed in some sections of the American press."

HIV-negative patients with cirrhosis have low CD4 cell counts, but normal CD4 cell percentages, American researchers report in a study published in the February 1st edition of Clinical Infectious Diseases.

The World Health Organization has issued a call for more pharmaceutical companies to develop d4T and AZT-based fixed dose antiretroviral combinations suitable for use in children of varying ages as part of the drive to expand treatment opportunities for children with HIV in developing countries.

Police on Wednesday (10 January 2007) recovered the body of a 13-year-old girl who was apparently raped and then thrown over a cliff in Durban's Molweni area. The police search-and-rescue unit had to retrieve Londi Mdunge's body, which had fallen nearly 60m down a cliff overlooking the Inanda Dam.

IRIN’s principal role is to provide news and analysis about sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia for the humanitarian community. We are looking for an internship candidate to work for a period of three to six months as assistant Photo Editor in the newly established photo department (IRINPhoto).

The critical phrase in Firoze Manji's essay ‘African Perspectives on China in Africa’ (http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/38873)
as far as I am concerned is 'uncritical acceptance or mere rejectionism'.

As an African at home, I am aware of prejudices against Chinese products. I am also aware of some substandard practices which dominate production of these products. Their sales outlets are everywhere in Nigeria. Imitation goods are common. As a result, we have to be circumspect. The inspectorate arms of government bureaucracies must be strengthened in order to perform their oversight functions.

The Chinese manufacturers themselves should realise the enormity of the tasks ahead. Africa needs genuine business partnerships as there is a huge market for goods to be sold. But the whole purpose would be defeated if their goods turn out to be inferior. Business ethics all over the world need to be governed by trust and commitment to excellence.

African Heads of State ought to welcome the investment opportunities provided by the Chinese, but they have an obligation to ensure that the people get the best deals. The rail network the Chinese want to build linking Lagos with Kano through Abuja is a welcome development in this direction.

If the African continent has been disappointed by the West, the Chinese should remember history and know that rejectionism would follow once the wrong signals or actions are given. Thanks for a stimulating essay.

The African Human Rights and Access to Justice (AHRAJ) Initiative aims to expand the domestication of international human rights standards in Africa through modest financial support for litigation and development of legal opinions, and amicus curiae briefs.

China has promised funds to the crisis-ridden West African state of Côte d'Ivoire. Ivorian authorities described the gesture as a fulfilment of a promise made by China at a recent China-Africa summit in Beijing.

Chinese Foreign minister Mr Li Zhaoxing will spend more than half of this month in Africa, visiting about a dozen countries. China is making itself an indispensable player in Africa. A recent study indicates that it has overtaken Britain to become Africa's third most important trading partner after the US and France.

Journal of Men, Masculinities and Spirituality (JMMS) is a new online, scholarly, peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary journal. The first issue is now available on an open access basis. JMMS is currently seeking papers and reviews for its second issue with a deadline of 10 March 2007.

The so-called “Muslim World” is undergoing change and transition both politically and sociologically. This conference aims to explore the Gulen movement’s past, present and potential-future influence on this transition.

The African film conference in Urbana-Champaign will explore how an appreciation of films as mode of expression and form can be combined with an understanding of their content.

The Global Accountability Index is the first initiative to measure and compare the accountability of transnational organisations across sectors. In doing so, it extends basic principles of democracy to the global level. The 2006 Report presents the findings of research into the accountability of 30 of the world's most powerful organisations on the basis of four dimensions of accountability: transparency, participation, evaluation, and complaint and response (see Figure 1). Each sector has leaders and those that fall behind, there is significant room for improvement and for valuable learning to be shared across sectors. Copies available for download from the Oneworld Trust website.

“In 2004, the internet was a different place: there was, for example, no YouTube, and most people online didn't have broadband. That's changed dramatically. The arrival of Web 2.0 has brought sites where the interaction is as fast as if it were on your machine,” says this article in South Africa’s Mail and Guardian, which looks at the "cream of the crop" when it comes to websites.