When the United Nations decided in 1971 to create the concept of "least developed countries" (LDCs) -- a new category of member states needing special social and economic assistance from the international community - they were described as the "poorest of the world's poor".

Billions of shillings from corrupt deals are about to be seized by anti-graft chiefs. The cash has been stashed in 78 bank accounts belonging to politicians from the current and previous regimes, prominent businessmen and former senior civil servants, including permanent secretaries. Court warrants allowing the accounts to be seized and the proceeds recovered by the State are already in the hands of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission, its director Aaron Ringera confirmed.

Barely a month after President Bingu wa Mutharika suspended Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Director Gustave Kaliwo and fired Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Ishmael Wadi, a report on the justice sector and rule of law in Malawi says the Executive interferes with and undermines the independence of both offices.

Hundreds today (September 16) marched through Leeds city centre in an unprecedented show of solidarity with asylum seekers facing the resumption of forced deportations to Zimbabwe. Organised by the Zimbabwe Refugee Community Organisation, with support from Leeds No Borders and the regional Refugee Council, the protest began outside Leeds Central Library at 12pm and attracted a genuine social movement coalition of exiled Zimbabweans, other migrant groups, local campaigners, trade unionists and church representatives.

President Robert Mugabe has grabbed a huge financial lifeline from China to boost Zimbabwe's ailing economy but analysts wonder what the country had to offer in exchange for the loan. Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono, tasked to turn around an economy in recession for the last eight years, on Wednesday announced a $200m facility from China as part of nearly half a billion dollars worth of mainly foreign loans.

The third newsletter provides information about the recent Plan of Action meeting held in July 2006 in Dakar, celebrates some successful outcomes from recent calls for action, and details about our latest publications.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today told more than 2,500 representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) gathered in New York for their last annual meeting before his term ends in December that the support of civil society groups has been critical to his accomplishments.

China had plans to finance the construction of a third hydro-electric dam, said the Guinean energy minister. Thierno Habib Diallo said that the 500mW hydro-electric dam with an estimated price tag of $609mn would be built at Soapil, on a Konkour River tributary, in the Lower Guinea Kindia Prefecture. Diallo said a Chinese team would shortly arrive in Conakry to look into the feasibility studies of the project.

The State of the Right to Education Worldwide / Free or Fee: 2006 Global Report
This report recently published and written by Katarina Tomasevski will "make you angry" says the author. "It reveals how ill fares the right to education today. Globally, it is denied despite pretty United Nations’ rhetoric on human rights mainstreaming and rights-based development.

China's ascendance as a global economic superpower obviously poses a threat to what the author calls "the culture of domination by the economically strong [West]". African countries might choose to associate with China not only because it produces more affordable goods, but because of cultural similarities and a sense of humility quite opposite from Western self-congratulation.

This year's Global Education Digest presents the latest education statistics from primary to tertiary levels in more than 200 countries. The Digest presents a wide range of comparable education indicators which can be used to assess progress towards the Education for All and Millennium Development Goals. These cross-national indicators are also useful for benchmarking the performance of a national education system to those in other countries.

A meaning of colonialism offered in the new edition of a French dictionary has stirred another debate on how France views its past. In its edition that appeared this month, the widely consulted French dictionary Le Petit Robert defines colonialism as "valuing, enhancing, exploiting the natural resources" of foreign territories.

This autumn, the Global Month of Action will see millions of people in over a hundred countries unite again under the banner of the white band, as they stand up against poverty and renew the call for trade justice, debt cancellation and more and better aid. The Month begins on 14 September, as the IMF and World Bank meet in Singapore, and culminates on 17 October, the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, in a Global White Band Day.

The Transition Generation summit will bring together students and young professionals from across the world. The workshops will examine unique responsibilities of the "transition generation" and the opportunities for young leaders to fulfill these responsibilities through innovative global leadership and social entrepreneurship.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development Report for 2006 urges countries of the South to implement more autonomous policies, and to further strengthen the global partnership for development to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In proposing discussion of proactive industrial policies and government support for some economic sectors, "we are not recommending any anti-trade stands," said UNCTAD officials.

Internet Governance is not a simple subject. Although it deals with a major symbol of the DIGITAL world, it cannot be handled with a digital - binary logic of true/false and good/bad. Instead, the subject’s many subtleties and shades of meaning and perception require an ANALOG approach, covering a continuum of options and compromises.

Aimed at policy-makers, this paper tackles the issue of Dutch Disease - that is, the theory that aid flows will lead to an appreciation of the real exchange rate which can slow the growth of a country's exports- and that aid increases might thereby harm a country's long-term growth prospects.

Major changes are taking place in agriculture because of what is being called the "bioeconomy." The rapidly growing bioeconomy is producing fuel, energy and products from agricultural crops, grasses, and forest materials. While there is the potential for positive outcomes such as higher farm crop prices, less export dumping, and less dependence on polluting fossil fuels, there are also concerns about negative impacts on food security and natural ecosystems.

Multi-ethnicity is subject to a heavily contested debate. Its importance for society is huge: first, because it developed considerably in the Western countries in only a few decades; second, because its emergence involves - beyond an increased ability for cross-cultural communication - the transformation of crucial ancestral dimensions, such as culture, biology, family relationships, and relation to ancestors, as well as concepts of sexuality and death, and belonging to a nation or community.

Yet, as it turns out, to generalize about entire groups of people based upon one's personal (and by definition limited) experiences with persons from those groups, is illegitimate on several levels.