Human rights organisations have been demanding an independent inquiry into the death of a Nigerian asylum seeker died while being deported and a stop to all forced repatriations. Switzerland's sixth deportation flight of 2010, scheduled for the evening of Mar. 17 with 16 Nigerians on board, never took off. Among the prisoners was Alex Uzowulu, 29, whose asylum claim had been previously rejected.

The world's 49 least developed countries (LDCs), described as the poorest of the poor, could feel the effects of the global economic crisis for decades, a senior U.N. official warned this week. Under-Secretary-General Cheick Sidi Diarra told IPS that if the international community does not live up to pledges made under Brussels Programme of Action nearly a decade ago, even the small gains made during 2000-2008 could be reversed.

Scientists say they have identified a potential treatment for sleeping sickness, a killer disease that infects about 60,000 people in Africa a year. British and Canadian experts say drugs could attack an enzyme the parasite causing the illness needs to survive.

In this week's roundup of emerging actors news, Africa set to grow by 4.8 percent, Indian and Chinese investors identified as the worst violators of environmental regulation, South Africa eyes Uganda’s oilfields, and China and South Africa pledge to upgrade strategic partnership.

Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (“ill-treatment”), in almost all cases, happen in secret. Access to lawyers, as well as to doctors, and contact with friends or family members creates a more open detention environment which helps to prevent torture and other ill-treatment. The right to be protected from torture and other ill-treatment is a fundamental one from which no derogation is permitted. This briefing note is intended to outline the current state of the law in relation to access to legal counsel promptly after deprivation of liberty as a safeguard against torture and other ill-treatment.

For the first time, China led the United States and other G-20 members in 2009 clean energy investments and finance, according to data released by The Pew Charitable Trusts. Last year, China invested $34.6 billion in the clean energy economy – nearly double the United States’ total of $18.6 billion. Over the last five years, the United States also trailed five G-20 members (Turkey, Brazil, China, the United Kingdom, and Italy) in the rate of clean energy investment growth.

Today, China is indeed a world power in every sense of the word and it is unimaginable that up till now, the country is still being referred to as an emerging economic power. China seems not bothered about the appellation out of conviction that if she continues with her developmental efforts and gets more countries, especially those in the third world, to come along with her in terms of patronage; she too would continue to be a force to reckon wit

In this week's roundup of emerging actors news, CNN pioneers its Africa business programme Market Place Africa, China-Nigeria trade ties continue to strengthen, 60 Indian firms express interest in Zambia for investing, and BRICs unlikely to push for a new global reserve currency.

Countries across the globe have been challenged to better manage and conserve the forests in their areas as one of the commitments to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). According to a comprehensive forest review released today by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the rate of deforestation has slowed over the last 10 years, but each year an area roughly the size of Costa Rica is still destroyed.

As technological obstacles to the efficient use of solar energy diminish, economic and political challenges remain to its widespread adoption by the poor. "The sun occupies centre stage, as it should, being literally the original source of all energy," said India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, describing an action plan for India's national strategy on climate change, in June 2008.

China will flesh out the details of its joint research programme with Africa at a meeting in Beijing next week. The Forum on China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), which includes 49 African countries, plans to implement several large-scale science and technology projects across Africa in the next three years

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.