In this week's edition of the Emerging Powers News Round-Up, read a comprehensive list of news stories and opinion pieces related to China, India and other emerging powers...

This report, 'A Partnership for Human Rights: Civil Society and National Human Rights Institutions' (NHRIs) encourages close cooperation between national human rights institutions and civil society. It has been deliberately designed to be a constructive point of engagement to improve the relationship between NHRIs and civil society. The report makes practical suggestions on how engagement can be used, and has been optimised in the past, to enhance the promotion and protection of human rights in the Commonwealth.

Experiencing a traumatic event affects survivors in many ways. This guide gives working journalists concrete tools for understanding the effects of trauma and for conducting sensitive reporting and writing on trauma stories.

Sub-Saharan Africa's economy is expected to grow by 5.25 per cent in 2011, but if global growth slows, South Africa will be particularly hard hit, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Wednesday. The IMF predicted that the region's economy would grow 5.75 per cent in 2012. South Africa, a middle-income country with slower growth compared to the regional average, had yet to see its output and employment return to pre-crisis levels.

‘We might not agree with other people’s sexual preferences. But where these preferences are confined to consenting adults, they really are of no business to any other person,’ argues Tapera Kapuya

A ground-breaking investigation examines the most secret aspect of America's shadowy drone wars and maps out a world of hidden bases dotting the globe, according to Using military documents, press accounts and other open source information, an in-depth analysis by AlterNet has identified at least 60 bases integral to US military and CIA drone operations. 'Over the last decade, the American use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned aerial systems (UAS) has expanded exponentially as has media coverage of their use. On September 21st, the Wall Street Journal reported that the military has deployed missile-armed MQ-9 Reaper drones on the “island nation of Seychelles to intensify attacks on al Qaeda affiliates, particularly in Somalia.” A day earlier, a Washington Post piece also mentioned the same base on the tiny Indian Ocean archipelago, as well as one in the African nation of Djibouti, another under construction in Ethiopia, and a secret CIA airstrip being built for drones in an unnamed Middle Eastern country (suspected of being Saudi Arabia).'

On 18 October, UNHCR released the companion to its annual Global Trends publication. The report, 'Asylum Levels and Trends in Industrialized Countries: Statistical Overview of Asylum Applications Lodged in Europe and Selected non-European Countries', finds that industrialised countries experienced 'a 17 per cent increase in asylum applications in the first half of this year, with most claimants coming from countries with long-standing displacement situations'.

Negative developments in the global economy could exert pressure on Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) sovereigns over the coming months, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said. This is although SSA economies have been expanding since the global economic downturn of 2008-09, S&P’s said in a new report ‘Renewed External Pressures Could Cloud Sub-Saharan Africa Sovereign Ratings Outlook’. For the region as a whole, a drop in global risk appetite could also erode the confidence that foreign investors have shown in SSA markets since 2009.

On the occasion of the 37th session of the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS) where a delegation of farmers from La Via Campesina will be present along with other actors from civil society to follow the discussions and participate in the debates, La Via Campesina has reiterated its demands for solutions based on the principles of food sovereignty. Important issues such as land tenure, price volatility, gender issues and nutrition as well as agricultural investments are on the agenda.

In this week's edition of the Emerging Powers News Round-Up, read a comprehensive list of news stories and opinion pieces related to China, India and other emerging powers...

Developing countries, particularly from Africa, are concerned about attempts by industrialised nations to change the negotiating dynamic of the World Trade Organisation. They are worried that developed countries want to introduce new issues at the multilateral body’s eighth ministerial meeting later this year without first completing the unfinished Doha agreement. The Doha Development Agenda (DDA) trade negotiations, launched in 2001, were meant to correct the historical imbalances and asymmetries in the global trading system and were designed to enable poorer countries to integrate into the system.

This online map shows the locations around the world where Occupy Protests have taken place. Protesters can report events for the map by sending tweet with the hashtag/s #event15oct or by filling in a form. According to the map protests took place in Tunisia, Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, Niger and Mali.

On this page, Al Jazeera staff and correspondents update you on important developments from Wall Street and around the world as the 'Occupy' financial crisis protests go viral. This page includes videos, photos, tweets and comments.

Where do Michael Sata's allegiances lie?

Perhaps we're offering a little too much?

‘It is in moments of celebrating revolutions where the past and future revolutions can be reflected upon,’ writes Horace Campbell on the anniversary of the founding of the Republic of China in 1911. ‘Pan-Africanists today will learn the positive and negative lessons of Pan-Asianism, as those struggling for unity in Africa and in China recognise that prosperity for one part of humanity cannot be built on the exploitation on the other part of humanity.’

‘In these days of dire economic and environmental crisis, with political elites under attack from Athens to Washington, the establishment is desperate for legitimacy. Even International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff now publicly endorse ‘social justice’ at the same time they tighten austerity screws,’ writes Patrick Bond. Someone needs to hold them to account.

The October - December 2011 issue of Race&Class is available. It includes:
- Spaghetti House siege: making the rhetoric real
- ‘Seize the time’: an interview with Stephen Jones
- The Attica Liberation Faction Manifesto of Demands
- Mariner, renegade and castaway: Chris Braithwaite, seamen’s organiser and Pan-Africanist.

A number of prominent West African LGBTI activists have urged the British government to rethink its recent threat to cut aid to 'anti-gay nations'. The activists suggest that the British government move with caution in the matter as it could result in even more homophobia when the general public and marginalised groups who rely on foreign aid for day to day survival blame the LGBTI community for the loss of their sustenance.

Since 2007, Blog Action Day has focused bloggers around the world to blog about one important global topic on the same day. Past topics have included water, climate change and poverty. This year, Blog Action Day will be held on 16 October, which coincides with World Food Day, so the theme is food.