Zimbabwe wants normal ties with Western powers critical of its policies but will press ahead with a plan to hand control of foreign companies to local blacks, President Robert Mugabe said in a rare interview. Mugabe told Reuters that his government was waiting for positive movement from the United States and European Union to mend ties soured over the last decade by rows over the seizures of white-owned farms for landless blacks and charges of rights abuses and election fraud.

African scholars interested in the growing relations between their continent and China will have a chance to debate this important topic at a meeting scheduled for 28-30 March 2011 in Nairobi, Kenya.

The conference will focus on the theme: 'Towards a new Africa–China partnership'. It will include the formal launching of a Pan-African Forum for Research and Dialogue on Africa-China Relations, in collaboration with Chinese academic institutions. It will seek to build a strong knowledge base on Africa-China relations within Africa, in order to support African policymakers in their engagement with China and the FOCAC.

For further information about this event, please contact:

Ebrima Sall
Executive Secretary
Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA)
Avenue Cheikh Anta Diop,
B.P. 3304 Dakar, Senegal
Tel : +221-33 824 03 74
Fax : +221-33 824 12 89
Email : [email][email protected]

Following a visit to the Shanghai Expo 2010, Kenneth King shares his insights into how 'the continent with the largest number of developing countries' represented itself to 'the largest developing country'.

On behalf of the Board of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA), and our local partners Coletivo de Feministas Lésbicas, Grupo Dignidade, Grupo Arco-Íris, and Instituto Edson Néris, it is our pleasure to invite you to attend the XXV ILGA World Conference to be held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, between the 4 and 9 December 2010. As you may remember, Rio de Janeiro was the city voted for hosting the 2010 conference at the last world conference held in Vienna in 2008. However due to logistical problems the Executive Board of ILGA and the Brazilian organizers agreed on moving the conference location from Rio de Janeiro to Sao Paulo.

August 12th marks the 25th International Youth Day, which is also the launch at the United Nations of the International Year of Youth. The year-long commemoration, whose theme is dialogue and mutual understanding, aims to encourage the full and effective participation of youth in all aspects of society. UNFPA is sponsoring activities throughout the year to ensure that young people's voices are heard at the highest levels, including at the September Millennium Development Goals Summit.

A new report by the UN International Labour Organisation (ILO) on Thursday said global youth unemployment in 2009 soared to a record high and is expected to climb even higher as the year progresses. The report, entitled: 'ILO Global Employment Trends for Youth 2010', said that, 'of the world's 620 million economically-active youth, between the ages of 15 and 24, 81 million were out of work at the end of 2009, the highest number ever'.

In this week's roundup of emerging powers news, US goes high-end to boost export trade with Afric, China unveils proposals for agricultural cooperation with Africa, Bank of China marks 10 years in South Africa, India signs $42 mln loan with Congo following debt relief, and Brazil's electronics sector eyes Africa.

Aid agencies are still barred from Kalma, the largest settlement for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Sudan’s Southern Darfur State, 10 days after the government blocked the UN and NGOs from distributing food and medical aid to an estimated 82,000 IDPs. Tensions in Kalma rose on 25 July, at the conclusion of the latest round of peace talks in Doha, Qatar, with some IDPs claiming they were not fully represented. Protests inside the camp pitted the detractors, mainly the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) of Abdul Wahid Mohamed el-Nur, against supporters of the negotiations.

Apeda has received an intimation from the Embassy of India in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), about investment opportunities for Indian entrepreneurs. DRC has 80 million hectares of rich arable soil with water resources and 1000 mm of annual rainfall. Maniac, maize, rice, groundnut, sugarcane, corn, sweet potatoes, bananas, yams, pineapples are the principal crops produced.

ASSOCHAM, India’s apex industry body, has sent a proposal to the external affairs ministry to consider tapping the emerging agricultural opportunities in Africa and offering to act as a facilitator to help Indian farmers reap the benefits of the huge potential that lie in Africa. “Hoping to address the huge issue of food shortage, these countries have begun inviting overseas farmers to come and cultivate their lands. These governments are willing to lease land free of cost for 99 years”, ASSOCHAM secretary general DS Rawat said.

Subsidies for agriculture in the industrialised countries of the world grew again in 2009, benefiting the largest companies and land owners, such as Prince Albert of Monaco and Queen Elizabeth of Britain. The latest increase came despite repeated and consistent evidence that such subsidies contribute to the destruction of the livelihoods of poor farmers in developing countries, especially in Africa, and that they distort international trade.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/494/66650_swiss_bank_tmb.jpgRu… Elmer, whistleblower and former CEO of Swiss bank Julius Baer’s Cayman Island operations, reveals the secrets of the murky world of offshore banking to Khadija Sharife. ‘Mauritius is in many ways the Switzerland of Africa,’ says Elmer, but there is another African nation vying to be the ‘golden’ financial gateway: Ghana.

‘Social Justice and Neoliberalism’, edited by Adrian Smith, Alison Stenning and Katie Willis, is a book that strives to ‘shift the focus from stock exchanges and politicians to the damage neoliberalism inflicts on real people and their communities’, writes Jamie Pitman and Adzowa Kwabla Oklikah. Pitman and Oklikah commend the book’s acknowledgment of human tales, though disagree with the authors’ claims that neoliberalism comes in many varied forms, and insist that looking at neoliberalism through different lenses does not invalidate its homogeneity.

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) with tenofovir (found in Viread, Truvada and Atripla) is safe for men who have sex with men (MSM), according to a U.S. study presented Friday, July 23, at the XVIII International AIDS Conference (IAC) in Vienna. PrEP is one of the most promising prevention tools on the immediate horizon. With PrEP, HIV-negative individuals take antiretroviral drugs to prevent becoming infected with the virus.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has announced it is no longer considering funding Africa’s tallest dam, in Ethiopia. The hydroelectric dam, called Gibe III, has drawn international criticism because of the devastating effect it is likely to have on the food security of at least eight Ethiopian tribes.

The AIDS 2010 conference theme emphasizes the central importance of protecting and promoting human rights as a prerequisite to a successful response to HIV. The right to dignity and self-determination for key affected populations, to equal access to health care and life-saving prevention and treatment programmes, and the right to evidence-based interventions based on evidence rather than ideology are all incorporated in this urgent demand for action. Rights Here, Rights Now emphasizes that concrete human rights measures need to be in place to protect those most vulnerable to and affected by HIV, especially women and girls, people who use drugs, migrants, prisoners, sex workers, men who have sex with men and transgender persons.

More than 10 years on, global poverty reduction strategies introduced by multilateral organisations including the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), have failed to remove many of the poorest communities, especially minority and indigenous communities, out of poverty, Minority Rights Group International says. Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) were initiated in 1999 by the IMF and World Bank to help low income and highly indebted countries to reduce their poverty levels. At the time, the move was widely supported by the UN and big donor countries. Currently, about 140 countries around the world are at some stage of a PRSP process, including implementing development projects based on the papers.

The new South has a cover story on why developing countries should also be eligible for compensation by transnational companies responsible for environmental disasters. The recent $20 bil fund set up by BP for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico should be a model for companies to compensate for disasters such as in Bhopal, the Ecuadorian Amazon and the Niger Delta.

Human Rights Watch announced Hellman/Hammett grants for 42 writers from 20 countries in recognition of their commitment to free expression and courage in the face of political persecution. All are writers whose work and activism have been suppressed by their governments. Beyond their own experiences, they represent numerous other writers and journalists whose personal and professional lives have been disrupted as a result of repressive government policies that aim to control speech and publications.

US officials have charged 14 people with providing money, personnel and services to the Somali militant group al-Shabab. The charges stem from four separate indictments in the US states of Minnesota, Alabama and California. Concerns about al-Shabab have grown after the group carried out a bomb attack in Uganda.