African cotton-producing countries hope that Brazil’s intended retaliation after its success at the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) dispute settlement body will have a positive spin-off for them but seem reticent about pursuing a similar course of action against the U.S. for its continued use of subsidies in cotton production.

Welcome to the Communauté Financière de l'Afrique ( CFA ), where this is how things have been working for over sixty years. The January 2008 edition of the pan-African magazine, New African, reports that "the tale of this currency is extraordinarily mind-numbing!" and inspires this special commentary

The Centre for Applied Human Rights at the University of York (UK) will be offering a new LLM in International Human Rights Law and Practice with the possibility of specialising in refugee law begining in October 2010. The degree aims to combine applied focus (centering around its international human rights clinic) and international breadth (involving, for example field work in Malaysia)

Gujarat-based Sanghi Industries, part of the Rs 4,500-crore Sanghi Group, has bought land in Kenya to build a cement plant, making it the first Indian company to do so in the east African country. Sanghi plans to build a 1.2-million-tonne cement plant, along with local partnership, in a bid to cater to a growing African market and to also serve neighbouring countries, said people connected with the development.

The , in collaboration with Fahamu Networks for Social Justice, will host ‘Africa and China in the 21st Century: The Search for a Mutually Beneficial Relationship’, a three-day symposium from 8-10 April, in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. The symposium will feature progressive intellectuals and scholars from North America, China and Africa, gathering to deliberate on the nature and future of Sino-African relations. The symposium is free and open to the public; a full schedule of events will be posted to the Africa Initiative website in the coming days.

'How is India’s relationship with Africa different?', asks Sanusha Naidu. She demonstrates that the latest conclave on the India-Africa Project Partnership – during which India emphasised its focus in Africa to be on capacity building, training and private sector development – revealed that African delegates felt that India is more a stakeholder than a shareholder on the continent. But Naidu suggests that Africa needs to critically examine India’s involvement. She concludes that: ‘For there to be an effective partnership, developing a dialogue between civil society, government and business would be a valuable platform to make this engagement different from the others.’

At the Nation Media Group’s recent Pan-African Conference in Kenya, L. Muthoni Wanyeki watched a distinct animosity between the African private sector and African civil society come to a head. She saw an African private sector rejecting any value of civil society and a civil society believing that the private sector could and should do more. She argues that a way forward needs to be found: 'We cannot work at cross-purposes forever and turn round and round on the same spot while all around us Africans die of hunger.'

The overall population of slums has swelled by nearly 60 million, even though more than 200 million slum dwellers worldwide have escaped their conditions in the past decade, a new United Nations report finds.

As coal power stations are demolished, due to environmental damages, in many countries, they are being offered as a "cheap energy supply" for Africa. But specialists warn this will be expensive in the long run, especially as fresh funds are available for renewable energies.

Namibia's Ministry of Works says it does a lot to uplift local contractors, especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Ministry Permanent Secretary George Simataa last week called a media briefing to refute allegations that the ministry was giving the majority of road construction projects to Chinese companies. He was referring to an article published in the Windhoek Observer, headlined ‘Chinese could dodge tender regulations’.

Despite the criticism of Chinese investors in Zambia, Beijing has once again come to the rescue of the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA) - a vital link inter-SADC link - by availing a $39-million interest-free loan. TAZARA, which is jointly owned by Tanzania and Zambia, has been teetering on a knife-edge with worn out tracks and wobbling wagons.

Trade and economic relations between Zimbabwe-China are expected to grow this year following the full implementation of the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation, a senior Chinese official has said.

In this week's emerging powers news roundup, China a step closer to securing valuable new oil reserves in Uganda, Tanzania revokes railway management contract with Indian firm, Indian companies invest $277m in six Ghana projects, and Russia plans to take part in Egypt's nuclear power plant tenders.

Today, more than half the world's population lives in cities. Every year, hundreds of thousands are uprooted when neighborhoods are cleared to make way for “development”. On 22-26 March, the fifth session of the World Urban Forum will be held in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro to address these issues.

Human rights groups, under the umbrella Coalition for International Criminal Court (CICC), have urged governments that are not yet party to ICC, to demonstrate their commitment to international justice and the rule of law by ratifying Rome Statute, the founding treaty, before 1 April, 2010

It has been called the “new Great Trek” by South Africans who remember their history. Presently, over 30-million hectares in almost 30 African countries have been auctioned to a host of corporations and governments, from China — housing one fifth of the world’s population on 8% of the world’s arable land — to oil-rich, water-poor Gulf nations.

On Saturday March 13, in the auditorium of the Lavonya DeJean Middle School, in the City of Richmond California, a large number of people gathered to commemorate International Women's Day for the third consecutive year. Under the title "Women in Solidarity: Healing Our Beloved Community" more than 300 people, the great majority women, met to share the problems that affect all of them at the local, national and international level.

Alex Kawakami calls himself an agronomist, but really he’s a revolutionary. He works for the landless people’s movement Movimento dos Trabalhardores Rurais Sem Terra (MST), a social movement of some 370,000 people organizing in over 1,000 settlements in Brazil, in addition to 90,000 families living in camps. For them, agricultural reform is more than organic farming – it’s an answer to land inequality, global food shortages and climate change.

Stephen Marks reviews Deborah Brautigam’s book ‘The Dragon's Gift: The Real Story of China in Africa’ on China’s involvement and policies in Africa. Marks finds it to be ‘an account at once scholarly and accessible, combining the puncturing of prevalent myths with a realist approach that does not rely on rosy assumptions.’

China's Information Office of the State Council published a report titled "The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2009" .