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...

As the uprising in Libya enters its second week, Al Jazeera's live blog is indispensable for keeping up with the fast-moving events in that country.

Kenyan mercenaries are among foreign soldiers helping the besieged Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi fight off an uprising, the Daily Nation reports. This was confirmed by Col Gaddafi’s former Chief of Protocol Nouri Al Misrahi in an interview with the Al Jazeera broadcasting network. Mr Misrahi was detailing how Gaddafi had resorted to using mercenaries against his own people after losing control of the Libyan armed forces.

Synergos is looking to recruit an innovative and entrepreneurial leader to be its Regional Director for its Southern African region to champion Synergos’ efforts to change the systems that perpetuate poverty and social injustice. Synergos supports leaders, leadership networks and partnerships that promote equitable access to basic human rights and needs – with particular emphasis on health and nutrition, the wellbeing of children and women, and education.

Google announced Wednesday it has awarded $2.7 million to the International Press Institute to foster innovation in journalism. The Institute, based in Vienna, will use the grant for its IPI News Innovation Contest, which will fund both non-profit and for-profit projects related to the development of digital news platforms, new business models for journalism and training in digital reporting throughout Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

Activists gathered at the World Social Forum's Assembly on the Right to Communication issued the following declaration on 11 February.

Global food prices continue to rise, though not uniformly for all grains. The World Bank’s food price index rose by 15 per cent between October 2010 and January 2011, is 29 per cent above its level a year earlier, and only 3 per cent below its June 2008 peak. A breakdown of the index shows that the grain price index remains 16 per cent below its peak mainly due to relatively stable rice prices, which are significantly lower than in 2008. The increase over the last quarter is driven largely by increases in the price of sugar (20 per cent), fats and oils (22 per cent), wheat (20 per cent), and maize (12 per cent).

Imagine a green wall - 15 kilometres wide, and up to 8,000 kilometres long. Imagine it just south of the Sahara, from Djibouti in the Horn of Africa in the east, all the way across the continent to Dakar, Senegal, in the west. The building of this pan-African Great Green African Wall (GGW) was just approved by an international summit taking place this week in the former German capital Bonn.

Join New Tactics and the International Fellowship of Reconciliation's Women Peacemakers Program (IFOR/WPP) for an online dialogue on the topic 'Joining Forces: Engaging men as allies in gender-sensitive peacebuilding' from 30 March to 5 April 2011. For more information on the dialogue and how to participate, click on the URL provided.

Gaddafi's efforts to seek a host outside of Libya prove fruitless.

Almost 10 years after the end of the civil war, Sierra Leone continues to face major challenges of weak governance, widespread poverty and systemic corruption, which undermine sustainable development and long term reconstruction efforts, says the Anti Corruption Resource Centre. Corruption continues to permeate almost every sectors of Sierra Leone’s public life, compromising citizens’ access to basic public services and institutions such as health, education and the police.

Tunisia's interim government on January 22nd lifted licensing restrictions on the importation of books, publications and films, opening the floodgates to foreign media. The constraints were imposed by the Ben Ali regime to control the flow of information. 'Lifting restrictions on importing books is a key demand that has been called on by voices of enlightenment, modernity and the democracy of culture and knowledge in Tunisia,' said Moktar Kalfaoui, a writer for the website Alawan.

Reporters Without Borders says it is deeply concerned about the continuing deterioration in the climate for the media in Côte d’Ivoire. Harassed, threatened and exposed to physical violence, journalists are now finding it virtually impossible to work freely. The press freedom organisation has urged civil society and the two rival camps led by Laurent Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara to respect freedom of expression and the right to news and information.

Tidiane Kassé

Yaya Dia

This International Land Coalition report analyses the illegal/irregular acquisition of land by Kenya’s elites to ascertain the types of land affected, the processes used to acquire land, and the profiles of the perpetrators, as well as to identify the victims and the impacts of land grabbing.

After a year of fragile and uneven recovery, global economic growth started to decelerate on a broad front in mid-2010, says this UN publication. The slowdown is expected to continue into 2011 and 2012 as weaknesses in major developed economies continue to provide a drag on the global recovery and pose risks for world economic stability in the coming years.

Members of the gay community are taking the government to court to challenge the constitutionality of its anti-sodomy laws. In 2005 gays attempted to register their association, the Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals of Botswana (LEGABIBO), with the Registrar of Societies, but their application was turned down in 2007 on the grounds that the republican Constitution does not recognise homosexuals.

The head of a parliamentary science committee has expressed dismay at drastic cuts planned for Nigeria's capital development budget for science. The cuts were highlighted last week (9 February) during a hearing by the House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology. The government will slash the budget, which funds buildings and equipment but not salaries, from 53 billion naira (US$350 million) in 2010 to US$33 million in 2011.

Museveni blazes ahead of the opposition...

This guide will show you how social media offer researchers an opportunity to improve the way they work. One of the most important things that researchers do is to find, use and disseminate information, and social media offer a range of tools which can facilitate these activities.