Cyberattacks, politically motivated censorship, and government control over internet infrastructure are among the diverse and growing threats to internet freedom, according to 'Freedom on the Net 2011: A Global Assessment of Internet and Digital Media', a new study released on 18 April by Freedom House. These encroachments on internet freedom come at a time of explosive growth in the number of internet users worldwide, which has doubled over the past five years. Governments are responding to the increased influence of the new medium by seeking to control online activity, restricting the free flow of information, and otherwise infringing on the rights of users.

In energy terms, China's top African oil suppliers are Angola, Sudan and Nigeria – all ahead of Libya. Around 80 per cent of Libya's oil reserves, of roughly 44 billion barrels, are in the Sirte basin – spread out between Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, a great deal of it under on and off rebel control. Beijing would hate to contemplate a balkanisation of Libya along Korea's lines – an impoverished, oil-less, Gaddafi-ruled west/North Korea opposed to an affluent, oil-rich, Western-aligned Cyrenaica/South Korea.

Ley-Ngardigal Djimadoum

Tiago Faia

Mengue M'Eyaà

Firoze Manji

Bolivia is set to pass the world's first laws granting all nature equal rights to humans. The Law of Mother Earth, now agreed by politicians and grassroots social groups, redefines the country's rich mineral deposits as 'blessings' and is expected to lead to radical new conservation and social measures to reduce pollution and control industry.

The 'Realizing Sexual and Reproductive Justice (RESURJ)' alliance is an international alliance of feminist activists seeking full implementation of international commitments to secure all women's and young people's sexual and reproductive rights and health by 2015. 'RESURJ by 2015' is a 10-point action agenda that places women's and young people's human rights, particularly sexual and reproductive rights, participation in decision-making, and accountability at the center of health programs and development efforts. Click on the link to read more.

So is this new war all about oil or all about banking? asks Ellen Brown, an attorney and president of the Public Banking Institute. 'Maybe both - and water as well. With energy, water, and ample credit to develop the infrastructure to access them, a nation can be free of the grip of foreign creditors. And that may be the real threat of Libya: it could show the world what is possible.'

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...

Two years into a supposed recovery, not only have none of the underlying contradictions that sparked the deepest economic and financial crisis since the Great Depression been resolved, but new problems are emerging, reports the World Socialist Website. The latest World Economic Outlook (WEO) report notes that 'the pace of activity remains uneven, with unemployment lagging'. Growth was 'insufficiently strong to make a major dent in high unemployment rates' with the number of jobless having increased by 30 million since 2007.

Around 7,000 stillbirths occur globally every day, with the poorest nations worst affected, a series of papers published in The Lancet suggest. An overwhelming 98 per cent of the 2.6m stillbirths each year strike middle and low-income countries, they say. Better clinical care and monitoring could halve stillbirths in poorer countries by 2020, the paper adds.

Through the eyes of protestors who have filled the streets of North African protests, what might a new society look like? Dani Wadada Nabudere, drawing on the meaning of social network use and principles of Ubuntu, explores.

Management consultancy McKinsey & Co has been accused of giving inaccurate and unethical advice to countries such as Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, potentially driving deforestation while allowing the countries to generate revenue from new UN-backed forestry protection schemes. A report released by Greenpeace claims McKinsey has drawn up strategies that could help rainforested nations continue with logging practices, while still gaining access to millions of dollars from the United Nations Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) and REDD+ schemes. McKinsey has denied the accusations.

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...

The human rights organisation Front Line launched its second Annual Report on Human Rights Defenders which highlights global trends and developments in the situation of human rights defenders in 2010 and analyses the situation in each region of the world. The report highlights the fact that despite some positive developments and the wave of uprisings sweeping across the Middle East at year end, overall 2010 was not a good year for human rights defenders who continued to face harassment and repression in many countries.

Many State parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) assert that they cannot fully implement the Convention because it is in conflict with Shari‘ah, or family laws and practices based on the Qur’an. This research project on CEDAW examined the reports of 44 Muslim majority and significant minority countries (2005-2010) that justify not implementing portions of the treaty based on these perceived conflicts.

Around 800 farmers protested Friday (1 April) against a government decision to seize land from a village in Gezira state, Sudan's agricultural heartland, without compensating the owners, witnesses said. After Friday prayers in the village of Fudasi, around 160 kilometres south of Khartoum, 800 demonstrators marched to the land that was appropriated by the government to build a university college.

By limiting access to internet, claiming to avoid obscenity and preserve gender and sexual norms, governments are actually preventing communities from exercising their rights and freedoms. The growing practice of regulation may have an impact in how people learn about sexuality and express it – especially the most affected by regulation, women and people of diverse sexualities. The Association for Progressive Communication's EroTICs project conducted research in five countries: Brazil, India, Lebanon, South Africa and the United States. The EroTICs issue paper contains executive summaries for each country.

In contrast to its North African neighbours, Algeria has yet to see sustained mass protests from a broad base of its population. Imad Mesdoua discusses why this is the case.

Nearly 60 international civil society organisations urged the executive board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Monday (4 April) to earmark some 2.8 billion dollars in profits from the agency’s gold sales for cancelling the debts of the world’s poorest nations. In a joint statement, the groups, which included ActionAid International, Oxfam International, the International Trade Union Confederation, and the global Jubilee networks, said the profits should be used to help poor indebted countries weather external shocks, including the 2008-2009 financial crisis and, more recently, the sharp rise in global food and fuel prices.

The 'Impact 2.0 iGuide: New mechanisms for linking research and policy', is a guide designed to help researchers identify the right Web 2.0 tools for establishing links with policy makers, for building their online presence and credibility and for effectively communicating their research.

'Far from cooking up a plan to save the Earth, what may come out of the summit could instead be a deal to surrender the living world to a small cabal of bankers and engineers - one that will dump the promises of the first Rio summit along the way,' warns Jim Thomas about the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, due to happen next year. 'Tensions are already rising between northern countries and southern countries over the poorly defined concept of a global "Green Economy" that will be the centerpiece of the summit.'