Carbon credits can be traded in the EU's emissions trading scheme (ETS), but unlike other commodity markets, it's not clear that carbon credits are tied to something that will have value tomorrow, or next year. Can the credits be owned, like a piece of property, or can they just disappear into thin air? And disappear they may. The entire EU trading system was shut down recently, with credits worth €28m missing following a series of highly effective cyber attacks, reports the London Guardian.

Freedom of the press could be seriously impacted across the world in the wake of the ongoing political revelations brought about by whistle-blowing websites such as Wikileaks, one of foremost constitutional law experts in the US has said. Speaking at a Personal Democracy Forum event, at New York University, veteran First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams warned governments could use the controversy surrounding the recent release of thousands of confidential diplomatic cables as an excuse to crack down on journalists and publishers.

A deal valued at nearly US$30 billion that will increase Nigeria’s refining capacity is on the cards. But is there a catch for Africa’s largest oil producer? Khadija Sharife investigates.

Countries that face corruption problems and have a history of severe earthquakes should take steps to regulate their construction industries to prevent unnecessary deaths in such disasters, argue Nicholas Ambraseys and Roger Bilham on Over the past three decades, 83 per cent of all earthquake fatalities have occurred in poor countries that are more corrupt than is expected considering their level of income per capita, they say.

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....

A new report, released by Plan International, examines the rights of girls throughout their childhood, adolescence and as young women. The 'Because I am a Girl: The State of the World's Girls 2010 - Digital and Urban Frontiers' report looks at the prospects and perils facing girls on two of the 21st century's fastest growing areas - the boom in city populations and the explosion of IT and communication technology. While there are great opportunities, prejudice and poverty is excluding millions of girls from taking advantages of the possibilities on offer. Urban poverty, lack of proper housing and sexual harassment can make many girls feel unsafe.

Maternity protection for women workers is essential for ensuring women's access to equality of opportunity and treatment in the workplace. This updated review of national legislative provisions for maternity protection in 167 International Labour Organisation member states has a particular focus on how well countries’ provisions conform to the ILO Maternity Protection Convention, 2000 (no. 183), and its accompanying recommendation (no. 191). It shows that, over the last 15 years, there have been noticeable improvements in maternity protection legislation around the world.

A new study from the American Journal of Public Health reports that mining is a significant determinant of countrywide variation in tuberculosis among sub-Saharan African nations. The study's authors conclude, 'Our findings suggest that mining profoundly affects not only the health of miners but also the dynamics of TB incidence in sub-Saharan African nations...As shown by the population risk of mining, improved public health and health care conditions for miners may be necessary not only for the miners themselves, but for controlling TB more generally among sub-Saharan African populations.'

No matter how many times researchers caution about the tendency to exaggerate the impact of information technologies (ITs) as 'magic bullets' to address a host of development challenges, common talk is predictably techno-optimistic, says this article on the website of the Communication Initiative. Policy makers, the media and aid organisations usually throw nuance aside to hail the arrival of the latest technology.

In the first commentary piece of this month's newsletter Ms Sanusha Naidu comments on South Africa’s recent inclusion into the BRIC grouping. The second commentary by Alexandre de Freitas Barbosa looks at relations between Brazil and Africa (article in Portuguese) followed by a review by Prof Deborah Brautigam of a recently released report on China’s possible influence and activities in African media. The January edition is available .

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.

As Côte d'Ivoire remains in a troubling state of political deadlock, Horace Campbell discusses the increasing militarisation of politics, the history of external interests in the country and broader conditions behind the contested 2010 election.

If there's one thing that Gbagbo has done it's this: Show the Ivorians that there is life after France, writes Paisible Ivoire.

Marilio Wane

Sanya Osha’s ‘Naked Light and the Blind Eye’ breathes new life into the popular theme of the transition from a tribal culture to modernity, writes Adeola Adams.

World trade is expected to have grown by more than 13.5 per cent in 2010, the fastest ever in global commerce, according to revised projections made by economists of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). 'This would be the fastest year-on-year expansion of trade ever recorded in a data series going back to 1950,' the WTO noted. The high growth figure, while reflecting higher industrial activities worldwide, is also a result of the severely-depressed level of trade in 2009, when world exports plunged by 12.2%, a WTO release said.

Russian sailors did not shoot at sea pirates in the Gulf of Aden, Navy Commander Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky said in comment on a video clip showing crewmembers of the Marshal Shaposhnikov large anti-sub ship fire at small boats, which presumably belonged to Somali pirates. 'Our sailors would have never opened fire at people at sea. That is an absurdity, which is not worth a comment,' he said. The three-minute video clip posted on the Internet displays firing sailors, a pirate boat and an approaching ship, and missiles flying from the warship.

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.

‘If the AU and ECOWAS intervene in Cote d’Ivoire on behalf of France and imperialism, it could be a dangerous example, threatening the sovereignty of other African countries, writes Asad Ali.

A new International Council on Human Rights Policy report looks into the human rights implications of contemporary patterns of social control: how laws and policies construct and respond to people, behaviour or status defined as 'undesirable', 'dangerous', criminal or socially problematic. The report explores how changing ideas of crime, criminality and risk are shaping social policy, why incarceration continues to be a preferred sanction and how contemporary policing and surveillance practices order and organise social relations.