A new global investment agreement proposed at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) carries huge risks for the world’s poorest people, says leading development agency ActionAid. In its new report, Unlimited Companies, the agency calls on the UK Government and the EU to drop their support for the agreement and stop putting the interests of big business before the needs of poor countries. The report comes at a crucial time in trade negotiations, as the Working Group on Trade and Investment meets in Geneva for the last time before the WTO Cancun Ministerial in September.

The May 2003 conference on “The Work of Karl Marx and Challenges of the 21st Century" was held under the auspices of Cuban trade unionists, philosophers and economists. More than 500 attended, and in addition to lengthy interventions by Fidel Castro, papers were presented by the likes of Samir Amin, Fred Bienefeld, Liudmila Boulavka, Simon Clarke, Francois Houtart, Diane Flaherty, Barbara Foley, Marta Harnecker, David Kotz, Michael Lebowitz and Istvan Meszaros. The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (Johannesburg) has made available resources to discuss the conference and its implications for South and Southern African social change movements.

The emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from Europe, Japan, the United States and other industrialized countries could grow by 17 percent from 2000 to 2010, despite measures in place to curb them, according to a new United Nations report. Greenhouse gases blanket the Earth, trapping the Sun's heat close to the planet's surface.

Mozambique has established a "poverty observatory" to monitor its national plan to reduce one of the world's highest levels of deprivation. The observatory will collect and analyse data on poverty to track the plan's progress. The country's first report on progress towards the Millennium Development Goals, released last year, spells out the challenges: nearly 70 per cent of Mozambique's 17 million people live below the poverty line, subsisting on less than 40 US cents a day.

The United Nations Security Council must as a matter of priority address the issue of conflict diamonds in the DRC, says a new report from Partnership Africa Canada (PAC) on the diamonds trade. PAC recommended that the UN Security Council embargo all unofficial diamond exports from the DRC, and insist that the Kimberley Process develop a more rigorous approach to statistics and monitoring. PAC further recommended that civil society organisations take an active role in promoting a Publish What You Pay campaign. "The sooner there is consensus on basic corporate transparency in developing countries, the sooner corruption can be diminished." said the report.

Health activists at the G8 meeting in Evian said it was outrageous that US President George Bush had attempted to block bipartisan efforts to increase American contributions to the Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria and described as “shocking” revelations that the European Development Fund was sitting on 10 billion unspent euros. “The heads of state created this fund and pumped it for positive publicity two years ago. Now they have decided to orphan it after deliberately manipulating the hopes and expectations of millions of people with HIV in developing countries,” said Sharonann Lynch of Health GAP.

Business Day reports that British Deputy Minister Paul Boateng is lobbying to increase foreign aid to Africa from US$50bn to US$100bn a year to align it with the United Nations millennium development goals and to give the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) the financial backing that it needs.

A coalition of 13 Ghanaian organisations need a global outpouring of citizen support for forest reserve protection. The Ghanaian coalition that opposes mining in the forest reserves is working with villagers on a variety of projects for sustainable economic development as an alternative to mining. They charge that five mining companies, including industry giant Newmont, got away with illegal mineral explorations in the forest reserves under the former administration. You can respond to this urgent request for international solidarity from the people of Ghana who have already suffered too much from irresponsible mining.

A billion people, including at least two-thirds of those in the 49 least developed countries (LDCs), are taking part in a massive social experiment. Will Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs), the current centrepiece development strategy for LDCs, help them escape from extreme poverty? Are PRSPs, as currently designed, likely to promote sustained growth? A report by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) provides an international comparative analysis of poverty in the LDCs. UNCTAD suggests that the full potential of the PRSP approach to poverty reduction is not being utilised and that the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative is half-hearted.

The preparatory work leading up to the G-8 meeting had already shown that very little would emerge on three key crises that affect global development today - the Third World debt crisis, the African crisis, and the crisis of legitimacy of the global arrangements that drive the globalization process, including the G-8 itself, says this commentary from Foreign Policy in Focus.

With this year's Group of Eight (G-8) summit starting in Evian, France, this weekend, civil society critics are united on the belief that while the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) has good intentions, it will not break the chains of global capital. This was the general consensus at a conference hosted by the National Labour and Economic Development Institute (NALEDI) last weekend. The conference brought together civil society and trade union movements from across the continent to formulate a collective assessment on NEPAD about "what would constitute an acceptable development path for Africa," said Ravi Naidoo, director of NALEDI.

Over the next three decades the world's population is expected to grow by some 2.2 billion people and the majority of this growth will take place in urban cities within developing countries. This rapid and far-reaching urbanization represents a major transformation for humanity, said experts at the Global Health Council's annual conference, and will have profound impacts on global health and the environment.

Evian, France--the world capital of designer water--may be a fitting city to host the heads of state from the eight most powerful industrial nations from June 1-3. But the image of wealthy leaders sipping "l'original" gourmet H20 will hardly help the G-8, as the exclusive group is known, to defend itself against charges of being an elitist and undemocratic forum. Debt and arms control, two important issues on the Evian meeting's agenda, show that those who gather to protest are not only voicing important criticisms about the illegitimacy of the meeting, but are also proposing vital solutions to international problems, says this Foreign Policy in Focus commentary.

There is a growing global tide of awareness that combating corruption is integral to achieving more effective, fair and efficient government. Several countries now view bribery and corruption as a serious obstacle to sustainable human development, and are asking the United Nations to assist them in gaining the requisite set of tools to curb such practices. Hence the Vienna-based United Nations Centre for International Crime Prevention (UNCICP) has launched a Global Programme against Corruption (GPAC), with pilot projects in selected countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Eastern Europe.

Attempts by the United States Administration to force Europe to accept GM food and crops received a serious blow after Egypt announced that it would not be part of a WTO challenge to the European Union's de facto moratorium on approving new GM licenses. The Egyptian Government says that it has taken its decision because it recognises " the need to preserve adequate and effective consumer and environmental protection."

The offices of Freedom FM, a Douala-based private radio station, were surrounded by police officers on 23 May 2003 after Communications Minister Jacques Fame Ndongo ordered the station's closure, accusing it of operating illegally. Prior to the police action, the station had been expected to launch on 24 May.

Environmental activists blocked the entrance to Exxon Mobil's headquarters and climbed onto the roof to protest what they said was the oil company's inaction against global warming. Police said 36 people were arrested Tuesday and would be charged with criminal trespassing. The protesters from the environmental group Greenpeace used an extension ladder to reach the roof. More protesters dressed in tiger costumes — Exxon has long used a tiger as its advertising symbol — were caught at the bottom of the ladder.

"If Hollywood makes money, if Bollywood makes money, then why can't we, in Africa?" asked the head of Ghana's biggest film firm, Robert Kofi Nyantakyi of Gama Film Company. The script the African film moguls are trying to write at the Cannes film festival this week could be called Desperately Seeking A Voice For Africa. "We have so many stories to tell" said Nyantakyi, whose country is a pioneer of West African cinema. But with few funds and a wide technology gap to overcome, Africa's chances of producing films featuring its own cultures and concerns appear doomed to failure unless national industries band together to break down borders.

Reporters sans frontières (RSF) has expressed concern about the recent measures taken by the National Communications Council (Conseil national de la Communication, CNC) against four private media outlets. During the week of 16 May 2003, the CNC decided to suspend the publication of two private newspapers, "Misamu" and "Le Temps". In addition, the publications "Jeunesse Action" and "l'Espoir" received official warnings from the council.

President Bush is preparing to bury a radical French plan which would help some of the world's poorest farmers by ending the dumping of subsidised western food in Africa. A war of words over the plight of the world's poorest continent has erupted after European officials accused the US of blocking the ban on export subsidies. In a separate attack, Mr Bush blamed European opposition to GM foods for causing hunger in Africa.