African Ministers and civil society groups are to oppose the launch of a new round of negotiations at the fourth coming World Trade Organisation conference in Doha, capital of the Persian Gulf emirate of Qatar.

Few Arabs share Bin Laden's fundamentalism, but his militancy on Palestine and Iraq strike a chord that resonates widely.

World Trade Organization delegates from 52 developing countries on Sept. 19 asked other WTO ministers to approve a proposal that would clarify language in the Trade-Related Aspects of International Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement to say that TRIPS would "not prevent governments from taking measures necessary to protect public health," including the production or importation of generic AIDS drugs.

Many of the world's largest banks have been ordered by the UK High Court to freeze accounts linked to General Sani Abacha as part of Nigeria's search for more than $3bn looted during the late dictator's rule.

The United States and the other industrial nations should launch a global Marshall Plan to provide everyone on earth with a decent standard of living, argue the Worldwatch Institute.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday urged all countries of the world to join the international fight against terrorism, warning that without united, global action the effort would fail.

The University of Central Florida's College of Education, in conjunction with the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) and Indiana University, will host the 46th annual meeting of CIES in Orlando, Florida on March 6-9, 2002. The theme of the conference is "The social construction of marginality: Globalization's impact on the disenfranchised". Panels, papers, and symposia proposals are due by November 1, 2001.

the New York Times' has decided to create a new global poverty beat in which "meetings of men in suits is not the dominant story line." It's long overdue.

The first ever edition of the Global Corruption Report, the new definitive annual overview of the state of corruption around the globe from Transparency International, will be released on October 15. It features analyses of party funding, money laundering and corruption in the diamond trade, and in-depth regional reports from across the globe, all supplemented by a data and research section. Regional reports also focus on trends in corruption and anti-corruption activities.

About 27 million people are shackled in conditions akin to slavery around the world today. This number is higher than during the heyday of the colonial slave trade, says Dinyar Godrej in the latest online edition of New Internationalist.

"John Gray of the London School of Economics spoke for many last week when he declared that the era of globalization was over. "The entire view of the world that supported the markets' faith in globalization has melted down ... Led by the US, the world's riches states have acted on the assumption that people everywhere want to live as they do. As a result, they failed to recognize the deadly mixture of emotions-cultural resentment, the sense of injustice and a genuine rejection of western modernity-that lies behind the attacks on New York and Washington ... The idea of a universal civilization is a recipe for unending conflict, and it is time it was given up.""

WTO Director-General Mike Moore said yesterday he was optimistic ministers would agree to a new round of global trade liberalization talks when they meet in Qatar in November, as WTO members studied draft proposals for a negotiating agenda and related decisions on implementing past agreements, reports the Financial Times.

We, the African scholars, researchers, academics, practitioners and others from Africa and the diaspora who attended the Open Forum, STRONGLY CONDEMN AND ABHOR the attack in America (on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon) causing the reckless destruction of life and property by persons yet unidentified; and as Africans, we stand for a humane, just, fair and democratic world order and community that promotes and defends the sanctity of human life and dignity everywhere.

The Federal Government has approved the establishment of anti-corruption unit in all ministries and parastatals in the federal public service. This was the outcome of the Federal Executive Council meeting held in Abuja yesterday.

Many organizations provide support services to children affected by AIDS in East and southern Africa. Yet few of these programmes have been evaluated. In Uganda, PLAN International, Makerere University, and the Horizons Program are collaborating on a study to assess the impact of an orphan support programme on the physical, educational, and emotional wellbeing of children. The researchers are also studying a different programme, called succession planning, in which children are reached before the death of the parent.

The fourth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation is still scheduled to be held in Doha, Qatar on November 9-13. This backgrounder helpfully summarises the positions different blocs hold on issues like trade and environment, trade ad labour standards, and indeed the need for a new round.

According to a global report released Wednesday by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), there is “a strong possibility of use of anti-personnel mines in the DRC in June 2000” by Uganda, which is a party to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty that outlaws any use, production, transfer or stockpiling of anti-personnel mines.

Both government and rebel forces in Sudan are continuing to use antipersonnel mines despite claiming to adhere to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, the International Campaign to Ban Land Mines (ICBL) said on Wednesday.

The G8's mandate has been seriously questioned in recent months, but this has not stopped G8 ministers setting new directions for the World Bank and IMF.

Globalvision News Network presents worldwide reports and commentary on the implications of the attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. What can we learn from the voices of the global media?