Ethiopia lost $11.7 billion to outflows of ill-gotten gains between 2000 and 2009, according to a coming report by Global Financial Integrity. According to GFI economist Sarah Freitas, who co-authored the report, corruption, kickbacks and bribery accounted for the vast majority of the increase in illicit outflows. 'The scope of Ethiopia’s capital flight is so severe that our conservative US$3.26 billion estimate greatly exceeds the US$2 billion value of Ethiopia’s total exports in 2009,' Freitas wrote in a blog post on the website of the Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development.

Mozambique is the most corrupt country in southern Africa, with 68 per cent of people having paid a bribe in the past year, according to a survey by Transparency International and Gallup. More than a third of those using health services or education had to pay a bribe.

This CTV programme followed Blikkiesdorp resident, Jerome Daniels, as he took us through his journey from living on the pavements of Symphony Way; Delft; to being one of the 45 people who wrote and published their own collection of stories in the book titled NO Land! NO House! NO Vote!

In solidarity with the millions of people already feeling the impacts of climate change, hundreds of people protested in the halls of the UN Climate Talks last week to demand that nations not sign a 'death sentence' in Durban. The march filled the hall outside of the main negotiating room in Durban just as the afternoon round of talks were scheduled to begin. Standing side-by-side with delegates from some of the world’s most vulnerable countries, civil society representatives sang traditional South African freedom songs and chanted slogans like, 'Listen to the People, Not the Polluters'.

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s election standoff intensified on Sunday after a team of international observers reported that incumbent Joseph Kabila’s win was so flawed it lacked credibility. Kabila, in power since 2001, was on Friday named the winner of the November 28 poll, but runner-up Etienne Tshisekedi immediately rejected the result and declared himself president.

Fresh fighting broke out in South Sudan on Sunday following a rebel assault on civilian and police bases in Pigi County in the troubled Jonglei state, officials said, four days after an earlier attack in Jale Payam in the same state. Militiamen loyal to rebel leader and former army renegade General George Athor Deng attacked Atar village from four directions, killing scores and wounding others, deputy governor Hussein Maar Nyuot said.

The US-based AgriSol Company has landed another lucrative land deal involving 10,000 hectres amid growing public outcry about the recent land deals sealed by the company in Rukwa region. The company, mid this year, came under attack from land rights activists and politicians, especially Members of Parliament for acquiring over 300,000 hectres located at Mishamo and Katumba areas in Mpanda district for agricultural development.

Amnesty International called for enforcing an effective global Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) in light of Egyptian security forces’ use of foreign-made teargas and other ammunition. The United States’ supply of ammunition to Egypt’s security forces prompted Amnesty’s call for munitions use to be included among the conventional arms regulated by the treaty. 'An effective Arms Trade Treaty, which includes a comprehensive scope and robust national licensing controls, would help ensure that arms exports of the USA and other major arms-transferring countries, do not fuel serious human rights abuses,' said Brian Wood, Arms Control Manager of Amnesty International.

More than 1,500 people took part in a march of Durban streets on 5 December to voice their concerns about climate change and agro-ecology. Banners and posters in hand conveyed messages like 'We are for cooling down the earth' as people from countries as far as Mali, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Germany, Brazil and The Philippines took part. The event was also to bring awareness to the food sovereignty campaign, which promotes principals such as equal participation, fights against greedy farm or agriculture owners, and a fair rewarding system for farm workers.

Alternatives Cameroon, an LGBTI organisation, reports that government policy makers last week convened to endorse a preliminary draft of a law that imposes harsher penalties for homosexual acts. The organisation revealed that the government convened a validation meeting on Friday 2 December during which a revision of the current law regarding homosexuality was discussed.

Are you interested in global food justice? Are you curious about how the world will eat in the future? Will you have some free time in the next six to ten weeks? Are you familiar with at least one of the countries listed below and/or knowledgeable about one of the topic areas? We are looking for interns around the world to do foundational research for a new trans-media project on the future of the global food system.

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 farmer and civil society groups in Africa are celebrating the launch of a 'network of African networks', called the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA). They have released a report emphasising that Food Sovereignty can cool the planet, while feeding the world and regenerating ecosystems. 'There are so many challenges facing our continent,' says Anne Maina of the African Biodiversity Network (ABN), one of AFSA’s member networks. 'As 14 PanAfrican networks, representing a huge constituency in Anglophone, Francophone and Lusophone Africa, we are in agreement that Food Sovereignty must be way forward to ensure resilient food systems and ecosystems in the face of climate change and destructive development.'

'I must admit that hospitals always remind me that I am living far away from my country, that I am not welcome. The nurses do not even bother to hide it. It is the same scenario every time I go alone or with my small child. Whenever I get up in the morning knowing that I am going to the hospital, my heart beats faster. It is like having a nightmare while daydreaming. It is so depressing that I pray everyday not to get sick so that I would not have to go to that hell.'

Economic inequality is on the rise worldwide - the rich are richer than ever before and their distance from the poor is greater - yet the character of that inequality is changing, according to Branko Milanovic, an economist at the World Bank. Poor people in rich countries have an income vastly higher than their counterparts in poor countries. The Occupy Wall Street protesters, who declared themselves part of the 99 per cent of poorer Americans, are still within the 95th percentile of 'world income distribution', Milanovic said. 'What we have now is the world of migrants,' he told researchers at a Cairo forum titled 'Inequality in the Arab Region,' organised by the Economic Research Forum.

A criminal court in Abidjan, the capital of Cote d’Ivoire, on 6 December 2011 dismissed criminal charges brought against three staff members of the pro-opposition Notre Voie newspaper accused of insulting President Alassane Ouattara in articles published in the newspaper on 21 November 2011. The Media Foundation for West Africa’s (MFWA) correspondent said the three were tried on new charges of 'violating the press laws' after the Public Prosecutors Department had amended the earlier charges of 'incitement to theft, looting and destruction of the property of others through the press'.

An international conference on mineral rosources began Monday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to discuss ways of changing the current mineral policies and regimes in African countries to enable the people benefit more from resources in their countries. PANA reports that African senior officials, representing their various countries, will Monday prepare agendas and reports, including framework report on Africa’s mineral regimes, which will be adopted by their ministers when they meet here 15–16 December.

Standing outside the c28 military court on Wednesday 7 December, the tiny group of around 15 supporters of Egyptian blogger Maikel Nabil were hopeful the young man, jailed for months by the ruling military junta, would walk free. However, the court adjourned, yet again, delaying the verdict, 'for no apparent reason', according to a lawyer close to the family.

At the southeastern edge of Cairo, only 10km from downtown and 15 minutes from Maadi, a lonely desert valley called Wadi Degla spreads some 30km from west to east. Cairo’s most popular urban protectorate was established in 1999 in an effort to tame urban and industrial expansion from engulfing into the delicate and so far untouched area. Sadly, today, this very expansion is jeopardising the protected area.

On the verge of officially forming a coalition government to run the country and rewrite the nation’s pre-revolution constitution, Tunisia’s dominant, Islamist political party Ennahda has come under fire for its economic neo-liberalism, both from opponents and from coalition partners. While Ennahda has been able to placate secularists by officially advocating personal and religious freedom, it is reaching out to the international financial community and big business by pledging to counterbalance its left-wing coalition partners.