In an April 1, 2009 article titled Inflation and Speculation: Ingredients for the Next Food Crisis? published by Common Dreams, Food First executive director Eric Holt-Gimenez and Policy Analyst, Annie Shattuck propose the re-regulation of speculation in commodities--a regulation that was lifted in 2000. The petition to Obama and Congress points out that the 2008 food price volatility "could have been stopped with sensible rules that, if enforced, would have staved off the malnutrition and starvation... caused by excessive gambling on food prices."

As China expands its engagement throughout Africa, it increasingly finds itself involved in African conflict zones either by design or accident. This involvement takes essentially three forms: Chinese participation in UN peacekeeping operations, Chinese weapons, especially small arms, which make their way into conflict zones, and kidnapping of Chinese nationals or attacks on Chinese facilities and nationals.

China's presence in Africa, "taken to be massive," is no t a threat to economic good governance, Carlos Oya, lecturer in development economic policy at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of London Univer s ity, said here on Monday. According to Oya, who spoke at a seminar on the theme of "governance for African development", said there was a manipulation effect through the media which described China's presence in Africa as a threat to economic good governance.

The tiny, sweltering shop where Barnabus Ossai sells boxes of imported A4-sized printer paper is a world away from the trading floors and banking offices where the global economic crisis was born. Ossai doesn't hold a subprime mortgage — the 28-year old bachelor shares a small Lagos rental apartment with some 10 family members. And with a net worth hovering somewhere around zero, he's hardly exposed to risky collateralized securities.

According to FDI: Source from the State Property Management Commission recently, China Hydropower Group and CEB recently signed the commercial contract of Adjarala hydropower station project in Lome, capital of Togo, with the contractual amount of nearly EUR282m. The Adjarala hydropower station project is located on the Mono River where Togo and Benin meet.

Zimbabweans can get permits to stay legally in South Africa for six months, the authorities have announced. Some three million Zimbabweans are believed to have crossed the border to escape the economic collapse and human rights abuses at home. The permit gives migrants the right to work and get healthcare and education.

Chinese investment in the West African state of Benin has brought substantial and visible benefits to the country but local workers mutter about exploitation and even slavery. The Beninese government and Chinese entrepreneurs insist that all is well on Chinese-run infrastructure projects but here, as in other parts of Africa, notably Zambia, there is a backlash against Chinese methods and focus on the continent’s vast natural resources.

From the 28th March to the 4th April, women and men from all over the world will be in the streets to protest against capitalism and war and to affirm that they will not pay for the crisis. Launched by the Social Movements’ Assembly, that gathered during WSF 2009 in Belem.

Israel carried out air strikes in January on a convoy moving through Sudan which it believed to be carrying weapons destined for Hamas in Gaza, according to a report by the US television network CBS. Two Sudanese politicians confirmed that unidentified aircraft targeted the convoy in a remote desert region north-west of Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast.

Hundreds of African migrants are believed missing after the boats they were using to try to reach Europe capsized on Sunday and Monday. At least 21 bodies have already been recovered, and search-and-rescue operations are ongoing, Libyan officials told Reuters. News agencies, citing Italian media reports, claimed 23 survivors had been recovered. One of the boats was believed to be carrying around 250 passengers, and another had as many as 365.

In the wake of the 2008 global food crisis, African capitals have been buzzing with renewed talk of the need for food self-sufficiency, and rice is often at the top of government agendas. Although everyone agrees on the need to increase production, the solutions coming out of the corridors of power boil down to the tired old formula of getting more fertilisers and “high-yielding” seeds to farmers.

In less than one month, South Africans go to the polls to elect a government for the next five years. We have already witnessed pre-election violence in KwaZulu-Natal and legal problems regarding the right of South Africans to vote abroad. While no election proceeds without hitches, the question is whether South Africa is setting a good example for the rest of the continent with the way its elections will be conducted.

First there were "blood diamonds," the gems that fueled conflict and human rights abuses in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Then there was "conflict cocoa," the chocolate source that's harvested by children and funds civil war in Ivory Coast. Now concern is rising about the minerals that go into common consumer electronics. Could that be a BloodBerry or a Conflict Cell in your pocket?

China has agreed to buy bonds issued by the International Finance Corporation, an arm of the World Bank, to help finance trade credit, the People’s Bank of China said. The central bank did not give further details about the transaction in a statement on its website on April 1. The IFC’s new trade finance program “aims to provide liquidity support to financial institutions engaged in trade finance by providing them additional credit lines so as to restore the damaged trade finance channels and to fight the global economic recession triggered by the crisis,” the central bank said.

Cabinet ministers were among the dignitaries who witnessed the groundbreaking ceremony of Daheng Botswana Textile Industry in Phakalane on Monday morning. The project is funded by two Chinese companies, Daheng Holdings Group and Touch International Holdings Group, for US$52 million. The Phakalane Industrial Park will be the first phase of the project, which will major in textiles and clothing products.

China has adopted an active and responsible attitude and substantial measures to confront the global financial crisis in cooperation with the international community. It has decisively implemented an active fiscal policy and moderately loose monetary policy in a timely fashion in order to stimulate the economy.

A delegation of the China-Africa Development Fund (CAD-Fund) led by Mr. J. P. Zhao, Chairman of the CAD-Fund, met with some officials of the African Union Commission, the Chief Executive Officer of NEPAD, representatives of the African Development Bank (ADB) and the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) on Monday 30 March 2009, at the headquarters of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The challenge of making a fresh start in Britain is the subject of a darkly comic and fast-paced new novel, Harare North, by Zimbabwean writer Brian Chikwava. The novel is set in Brixton in south London, and it offers a view of London as seen through the eyes of its migrant population, particularly Africa's dispossessed. Hence, Harare North, the title and ironic name the book's unnamed hero gives to London.

In a strongly worded letter to the president of Zambia, the country's Catholic bishops called on the government not to ratify an African Union protocol with articles that would threaten the sacredness of life and the sanctity of marriage.

In 2008, total net official development assistance (ODA) from members of the OECD's Development Assistance Committee (DAC) rose by 10.2% in real terms to USD 119.8 billion. This is the highest dollar figure ever recorded. It represents 0.30% of members' combined gross national income