China’s long-awaited medical reform plan arrived as spring flowers bloomed around Beijing. It consists of two documents: an “opinion on deepening health care reform” from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the State Council; and “key points for implementing medical and health reform (2009-’11).”

The American University in Cairo (AUC) Center for Migration and Refugee Studies (CMRS) is pleased to announce its plans for an additional Graduate Diploma with a Specialization in Psychosocial Intervention for forced migrants and refugees beginning in September 2009.

The Global Information Technology report of 2008-2009 has ranked Zimbabwe’s Information and Communication Technology sector at 132 out of 134 countries on the network readiness index list, ahead of East Timor and Chad. The Network Readiness Index (NRI) measures the capacity of countries to exploit the opportunities offered by the ever-changing Information and Communications Technology sector. The NRI comprise of three components: the environment for ICT offered by a given country or community, the readiness of the community’s key stakeholders to use ICT’ s, and the usage of the ICT amongst these stakeholders.

Poor African farmers and especially victims of conflicts will benefit from a UN managed fund aimed at boosting recovery for households and formerly displaced communities. The project follows Belgium's agreement to a $6.6 million programme for FAO to provide emergency assistance to poor farmers in Africa as part of an ongoing partnership that has totalled more than $80 million over the past twelve years.

Sierra Leone village chiefs, community members and women who perform female genital cutting have signed an agreement stating that girls in northern Kambia district will not undergo genital mutilation – or ‘cutting’ – before age 18. The number of girls being cut during the December 2008-January 2009 initiation season in Kambia dropped drastically, according to Finda Fraser, advocacy coordinator at local non-profit Advocacy Movement Network (AMNet), which runs a ‘Say No to Child Bondo’ campaign in the district.

Seated at his cluttered desk in the offices of Congo's National AIDS Council (CNLS), Franck Fortuné Mboussou is a very happy man. In a country where barely 10 percent of the female population has ever been tested for HIV, the organisation finally has enough money to buy a mobile testing unit.

As job losses mount in the clothing and textile sector, two reports have criticised quotas imposed on 31 lines of Chinese imports as pointless and probably counterproductive. The quotas ran for two years from January 2007. A request to China to allow the quotas to continue was recently rejected.

This was supposed to be a spring of soup kitchens and breadlines in China’s manufacturing heartlands, the potential precursor to a long, hot summer of industrial unrest threatening the government’s vision of a “harmonious society”. Times are hard in China’s export sector, the hardest in memory. Exports from southern Guangdong province, which account for a third of the country’s total, fell 21 per cent in January and February as western retailers ran down their inventories.

At the G20 meetings in London, finance ministers agreed on an unprecedented package of financial support for emerging countries: US$250 billion in new direct G20 financing commitments to the IMF, with a commitment to come up with another US$250 billion; around US$100 billion in new Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) for emerging market (EM) countries as a part of a US$250 billion global allocation (at the risk of oversimplifying, the IMF is essentially “printing money” and handing it out in proportion to member quotas.

On April 6, “Win Far 161,” which is a deep sea fishing vessel home-ported in Kaohsiung, was hijacked by Somali pirates at gunpoint near an island in the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. Maj. Gen. Lee Yueh-chang, who is deputy assistant chief of staff for operations at the Ministry of National Defense, responded by saying that the ROC’s navy was “carefully considering” whether to escort and protect the island’s fishing vessels in the Indian Ocean.

China has unveiled an investment guide book to help domestic firms make foreign investments. The first batch of the guide book released Friday by the Ministry of Commerce covers 20 countries, such as Pakistan, Thailand, Malaysia and Japan. The guide book includes investment laws and regulations of the 20 countries and statistics about individual countries among other useful information such as advice on problems that firms may encounter.

A United States judge has ruled that lawsuits can go ahead against several companies accused of helping South Africa's apartheid-era government. IBM, Ford and General Motors are among those corporations now expected to face demands for damages from thousands of apartheid's victims.

The LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa is a unique programme to which 30 individuals from African countries with a good law degree and preferably experience in the field of human rights are admitted. During an intensive one-year course, they are taught by eminent lecturers in the field of human rights and gain invaluable practical exposure. It is the only course of its kind in Africa.

The Senegalese Minister of Agriculture, Amath Sall, has announced that "by 2012, Senegal will not import a single grain of rice." Record harvests in the River Senegal valley indicate the country is on the right course. The Dakar government has intensified its programmes to raise food production in the Sahelian country, with a special focus on rice as a staple food. Especially along the large valley of River Senegal, marking its border with Mauritania, results are now beginning to become visible.

Anecdotal evidence that entrenched cultural beliefs among Swazis actively encourage the spread of HIV/AIDS has been confirmed by a joint government and UN report. The study by UN the Population Fund (UNFPA) and Swaziland's Ministry of Health and Social Welfare - The State of the Swaziland Population - echoes warnings by local NGOs that "AIDS cannot be stopped unless there is a change in people's sexual behaviour."

On 11 April 2009, William Jalulah, the Upper East regional correspondent of the Accra-based "The Chronicle" newspaper, was violently assaulted by supporters of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) for photographing a violent attack. The party supporters also destroyed his digital camera.

Seardel’s decision to close Frame Textiles, with the loss of up to 1400 jobs, illustrates both the deep flaws in SA’s industrial strategy and the futility of trying to insulate the country from the global economic crisis by means of protectionist policies. Frame, the biggest textile operation in southern Africa, has been struggling for years to compete with cheap imports, soaring input costs and — for the past six months in particular — the collapse of export markets globally.

The establishment of not-for-profit, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in China is becoming increasingly popular as the necessity of providing private alternatives to social, economic, political, and cultural issues becomes apparent. Indeed, if China is to continue to flourish and expand, NGOs will play a critical role in making sure that it is done in a socially healthy and constructive manner that will be beneficial to all.

The G20 world economic group has being treating Africa with a leper-like caution, reason Africa is yet to qualify to be invited to her fold. In her November 2008 leaders meeting in Washington DC, no African country was invited, even African Union (AU) an organization body of Africa, was not invited, in exception of South Africa who on its own is a full member in the G20 economic group.

The ANC’s T-shirt suppliers are all South African, the ruling party protested yesterday after reports that its election campaign T-shirts, totalling millions of rands, are from China. “We needed two million T-shirts, that was the order. We used the services of a group of people who buy and print them. The suppliers bought the T-shirts, not the ANC,” said ANC spokesperson Jessie Duarte. “All our suppliers are South African. I don’t know anything about the Chinese.”