The effects of the global financial crisis, which has hit Angola since 2009, has contributed to the slump of the average Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate from 17 per cent in 2008 to two per cent in 2009 and three per cent in 2011, according to the minister of economy, Abraao Pio Gourgel.
According to the government official, this situation has occurred despite government's stimulus to economic activity, due to the dependence on the oil sector, which accounts for 45 to 50 per cent of GDP and over 75 per cent of state revenues and 98 per cent of total exports.

Blog Africa is a Country has a post showing a global gay marriage map. South Africa is the only African country of 10 worldwide to have national laws extending marriage rights to gays and lesbians. 'And as we know South Africa is not the most gay friendly countries,' the post states.

The Dalai Lama has accused China's rulers of creating a climate of fear, lies and censorship. 'In reality, for the communist totalitarian system and for many totalitarian systems, hypocrisy and telling lies has unfortunately become part of their lives,' he said in a conversation with Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu via video link-up to Cape Town. The Dalai Lama was meant to travel to Cape Town from India for Tutu's 80th birthday celebrations at the weekend but cancelled his trip after South Africa failed to give him a visa in time.

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...

African countries which persecute gays will have their aid cut, International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell has said. He was quoted by the Britain’s Mail on Sunday saying that already his country has cut aid to Malawi by £19million after two gay men were sentenced to 14 years hard labour. Mr Mitchell, one of Mr Cameron’s closest allies, is also threatening to impose further aid 'fines’ against Uganda and Ghana for hardline anti-gay and lesbian measures.

Africa Today speaks with Robin Fryday the producer of the film 'The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldiers of the Civil Rights Movement' and talks with Eddie Daniels on contemporary South Africa. Eddie Daniels was imprisoned on Robben Island for many years with Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, and Dennis Brutus.

Thousands of Americans have non-violently occupied Wall Street - an epicentre of global financial power and corruption. You can sign a petition in support of the movement: 'If millions of us from across the world stand with them, we'll boost their resolve and show the media and leaders that the protests are part of a massive mainstream movement for change.'

As Occupy Wall Street protests in the US enter their fourth week, the size of the crowd has begun to grow. 'But as the nascent movement gathers steam, struggles and problems are apparent. Is their message clear enough? Who is their leader? How long can they last, camped out in a concrete park as the weather chills? Who will control it?'

One of the striking features of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is that it is mainly being signed by Western/'developed' countries, says this post from ACTA is the last-gasp attempt of the US and the EU to preserve their intellectual monopolies. Much of the challenge to the old order is coming from the BRICS group of emerging countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Of those, the one in the vanguard of adopting innovative approaches to making knowledge widely accessible in the Internet age is Brazil. One of these approaches is a draft bill for a civil rights-based framework for the Internet.

'The Western Sahara is the last country in Africa that has not been correctly decolonised - instead, the right of the Sahrawi people to post-colonial independence has been frozen in time,' writes Konstantina Isidoros in introducing this special edition of Pambazuka News. 'If we are to take the rule of international law as our guiding foundation, then Morocco has blatantly defied international law twice, by its illegal invasion of someone else’s sovereign territory and by its illegal occupation that still continues today.'

The latest issue of the South Bulletin focuses on the recent deterioration in the state of the global economy and the effects this will have on developing countries. Highlights include:
- Bracing for a New Global Financial Crisis (by Martin Khor)
- The End of Recovery And Start Of A New Global Downturn (by Y?lmaz Akyüz)
- A Lot of Uncertainties and Volatilities Facing Developing Countries: Presentation by Dr Yaga Venugopal Reddy.

Botswana and Namibia are set to lose preferential access to the European Union, which wants African, Caribbean and Pacific countries to sign controversial free trade agreements within two years or face potential loss of market access to the 27-member EU bloc. The Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) are contested because countries fear unfair competition from the EU market. Brussels has finally set an ultimatum for the talks: a total of 18 out of 36 countries that have not yet concluded or implemented an EPA now have till 1 January 2014 to do so, reports IPS.

This article on the World Socialist website argues that the handling of the Eurozone financial crisis points to a policy of 'pushing Greece over the edge, with devastating consequences for the Greek working class, while allocating hundreds of billions more in public funds to cover the potential losses of banks across Europe - a new bailout that will inevitably be paid for at the expense of the jobs, wages and social conditions of workers in every European country. These attacks will set a new benchmark for attacks on the working class in the US and internationally.'

India has launched what it says is the world's cheapest touch-screen tablet computer, priced at just $35 (£23). Costing a fraction of Apple's iPad, the subsidised Aakash is aimed at students. It supports web browsing and video conferencing, has a three-hour battery life and two USB ports, but questions remain over how it will perform.

The International Monetary Fund's forecast mistakes on the global economy would be forgiven if they came from a teacher, a lawyer or a surgeon. But, says this article on there should be no pardon for well-paid 'experts', whose job is to supervise the world economy and alert when things are going wrong. 'What makes things worse is that those experts are not inclined to admit their mistakes and apologize - not to speak of offering their resignation - as if their blunders were inconsequential, and just a minor oversight in a cooking recipe.'

A new economic analysis of the costs of pollution to the United States finds that coal power is harming the economy. In the American Economic Review article 'Environmental Accounting for Pollution in the United States Economy', economists Nicholas Z. Muller, Robert Mendelsohn, and William Nordhaus model the physical and economic consequences of emissions of six major pollutants (sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, ammonia, fine particulate matter, and coarse particulate matter) from the country’s 10,000 pollution sources. They estimate the 'gross external damages' (GED) from the sickness and death caused by the pollution, and compare that to the value added to the economy.

Zambia’s President Michael Sata has reversed the previous government’s sale of a privately-owned bank to South Africa’s FirstRand, dissolved several parastatal boards and revealed that the nation, including State House, was 'stinking with corruption'. The Zambian leader dismissed all 72 district commissioners that were appointed by the previous government, saying they were politicians, and ordered them to immediately vacate their offices and houses. 'We cannot have civil service positions given to political parties,' he said.

The United Nations Agency for Refugees has extended the implementation of the cessation clause to 30 June next year. The clause was supposed to be implemented on 31 December this year. The UNHCR cessation clause stipulates that a person recognised as a refugee, will either voluntarily return to the country of origin or apply for residence in the host country. The clause, does not allow claims for refugee status after verification by the agency that there are no conditions in the country of origin that qualify for UN protection.

First time author Nadia Denton presents in 'The Black British Filmmaker’s Guide to Success' a valuable resource that will enable film practitioners to achieve greater success with their endeavours. The Black British Filmmaker’s Guide to Success addresses the need for an up-to-date, practical resource that caters specifically for black content work.

Japan's Foreign Ministry hopes to use products from the country's northeast that was hit by the March 11th quake and tsunami to aid developing countries. The Foreign Ministry filed a budget request worth more than 220 million dollars with the government, which is working on a third supplementary budget bill for fiscal 2011. The Ministry says it wants to use part of the requested budget, worth about 65-million dollars, to buy industrial products, including wheelchairs, and marine food products made in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima Prefectures, to provide them free of charge to developing countries.