The United Nations and international aid agencies are sending their first humanitarian evaluation mission to the region around Uvira, South Kivu, in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where fighting has displaced over 50,000 people.

Corporations (both local and international) investing in developing countries affect millions of poor and vulnerable people. How can corporations learn more about the political, historical, social and cultural environment in which they operate? Can they engage in dialogue with vulnerable people and become partners in, and not obstacles to, sustainable development?

Since independence, Zambia has received billions of dollars of development aid from Europe. Yet at least 75 percent of the population remains poor and over the last three decades, life has become increasingly difficult for the average Zambian. Has aid done anything to reduce poverty?

The correctional services department plans to strengthen its internal anti-corruption unit using forensic investigators from the elite Scorpions unit.

In the context of widespread criticism of the WTO , South Africa chose to project itself internationally as the "bridge between the developed and the developing world". But within South Africa, government spokespersons have been proudly proclaiming South Africa's "leadership role" in the WTO "in the best interests of the developing world". As the evidence in this analysis shows, it is highly debateable whether this self proclaimed "leading role" is a reality among developing countries.

Globalisation: it’s a buzzword you can’t escape. For some it’s the ticket to a democratic world of instant communications and global prosperity. For others it’s a money-mad juggernaut, spinning wildly out of control, threatening both cultural and biological diversity. Today the Western consumer model has seeped into every corner of the globe while gaps in wealth, food security and social provision continue to grow. The No-Nonsense Guide to Globalisation traces the journey towards a borderless world. And in the process it shows that the promise of globalisation is seductive, powerful, and ultimately hollow.

The United Nations warned on Wednesday that escalating fighting in Liberia threatened peace in neighboring countries, especially Sierra Leone, and hindered aid groups trying to help thousands of refugees in the region.

Since the ending of the Jubilee 2000 campaign, activists have been encouraged to divert their energies into other campaigns - around trade, aid and Aids. Western development and finance ministers and IMF staff have breathed a sigh of relief, pleased that the "crude analysis" of the debt campaigners has been replaced by debates about trade. It is of course vital to highlight the double standards of western governments; and to pressurise these governments to reverse trade injustice, increase aid and fight Aids. But it takes a tragedy like the one unfolding in Malawi to remind us that debt remains the very lynchpin of global economic injustice.

Bernard Ndorainywe, 39, is a Burundian who has lived in the Nduta refugee camp in western Tanzania since 1996, and he wants to go home. However, as with many of the 100,000 refugees in the camps in Kibondo District, his home is in southern Burundi, where the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is not facilitating repatriation.

Aid agencies have welcomed an announcement that the United Kingdom will increase aid to Africa, but said it is likely that there will be little progress on debt relief, trade and funding for education at the G8 summit.

Tony Blair underlined his determination yesterday to make Africa a priority at the G8 summit when he announced British aid to the continent would rise to £1bn a year by 2006. The initiative requires African nations to institute good governance and crack down on corruption as part of a drive to make development cash more effective.

Since the mid-1990s, the G8 annual summits have incorporated more social issues and developing country concerns into their agendas, but they have failed to demonstrate much progress on these issues. Similarly, the G8 has failed to produce the kind of global leadership necessary to jettison the failed neoliberal model for managing the global economy. For many NGOs and developing countries, the G8 summit remains a symbol of elite global governance, but concerns about the legitimacy of this self-constituted forum are increasingly overshadowed by criticisms of the forum's ineffectiveness.

More than 30 people may have suffocated deep inside a tanzanite mine in northern Tanzania last Thursday after an oxygen pump failed, mining officials said. Alex Magayane, Arusha regional mines officer, said rescue workers had pulled one body from the gemstone mine in Mererani, 24 miles southeast of Arusha, and believed 31 others were still trapped inside.

The US government announced that it will make a $14 million aid donation to enable hunger-stricken Malawi to import the staple food, maize. The Unites States Agency for International Development (USAID) said the funds would be used to buy 40 000 metric tones of maize.

On 14 June 2002, RSF called on the government of Somaliland, an autonomous region of Somalia, to reverse its 5 June ban on all privately-owned radio stations. The Information Ministry announced that "no other voice" could be heard on the air except that of government-run Radio Hargeysa, and that privately-owned stations would not be permitted, because of "potential dangers." It warned anyone with transmitting equipment to hand it over to the authorities and warned those who did not do so would be "prosecuted in court." "This move is a serious obstacle to press freedom and the growth of independent and diverse expression in the region," RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard said in a letter to Somaliland President Dahir Riyale Kahin. "The government has taken this step because it knows most of the region's inhabitants get their news from the radio," Ménard added.

Save the Children UK says that UN food aid plans to ensure 13 million people in Southern Africa do not go hungry have been compromised by a seriously flawed assumption. The World Food Program (WFP) of the UN is predicting that nearly two million of the three and a quarter million tonnes of grain required in the region will be commercially imported. In reality, commercial importers have the capacity to import only a fraction of this amount - leaving a massive food shortfall if the UN is not prepared to step up its own aid programme.

Economic growth in least developed countries has increased from levels seen 10 years ago, but 13 countries led by Guinea-Bissau and the Solomon Islands had "regressing economies".

The incoming leader of the world's most powerful trade body wants to introduce tough rules to clamp down on any lobbying by multinationals aimed at influencing the world trading system. The proposal from the World Trade Organisation's director-general designate, Dr Supachai Panitchpakdi, has shocked international governments and multinational firms, which have mounted a campaign against the plans.

"What are we going to do about the United States?" It's a blunt question for a UN diplomat, but it was on the minds, the lips, and in some cases the T-shirts, of many of the thousands of delegates who recently gathered in Bali for last preparatory meeting before the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) to be held in Johannesburg in late August. Kenny Bruno was at the Bali "Prepcom" and says despite the many roadblocks erected by Washington, many delegates are still optimistic that "another UN is possible."

A Durban scriptwriter has won an interim interdict against the distribution or sale of Mbongeni Ngema's controversial song Amandiya. The interdict application said the song, which appears on a CD entitled Jive MaDlokovu, was "rabidly racist and anti- Indian" and that it breached the South African constitution by promoting hate speech.