Beijing is eager to rewrite negative perceptions of its growing ties with Africa at a summit this week, citing expanding private investment and a push to shift low-end manufacturing to the continent long seen as a commodities and energy cache for China. Chinese state-owned firms in Africa face criticism for using imported labour to build government-financed projects like roads and hospitals, while pumping out resources and leaving little for local economies, an image Beijing wants to change at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.

News that Eskom plans to seek a nearly 15 per cent electricity price hike this year has sparked a call for greater energy efficiency, while the DA says the state-owned company’s monopoly should be ended. DA deputy energy spokesman David Ross said he would write to the Competition Commission to ask it to examine the case for separating Eskom’s electricity generation and distribution components.

Angola's political opposition have accused the National Electoral Commission (CNE) of irregularities ahead of general polls set for late August. 'We call on the CNE to take the necessary decisions to correct these irregularities to ensure that the electoral process is truly free, fair and transparent,' said Abel Chivukuvuku, president of the Broad Convergence of Angolan Salvation (Casa) coalition after meeting the CNE. 'The number of voters is unclear, the CNE cannot say how early or foreign voting will be organised, or give the publication date of the voters' roll.'

The global battle for natural resources - from food and water to energy and precious metals – is only beginning, and will intensify to proportions that could mean enormous upheavals for every country, leading academics and business figures told a conference in Oxford. Sir David King, former chief scientific adviser to the UK government, who convened the two-day Resource 2012 conference, told the Guardian: 'We are nowhere near realising the full impact of this yet. We have seen the first indications – rising food prices, pressure on water supplies, a land grab by some countries for mining rights and fertile agricultural land, and rising prices for energy and for key resources [such as] metals. But we need to do far more to deal with these problems before they become even more acute, and we are not doing enough yet.'

The Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company, SNEPCO, has been fined U.S.$5 billion over the massive oil spill that occurred at its Bonga oil field on December 20, 2011. This was disclosed by the director general, National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, NOSDRA, Dr. Peter Idabor, when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Environment.

Liberia has no plans to abolish Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) despite mounting demands by local and international organisations, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has said. President Sirleaf said, 'to hastily abolish the practice could spark off a serious societal crisis'. FGM is widely practised in Liberia with thousands of young girls annually initiated in traditional 'schools' known as the Sande Society in preparation for mutilation.

What is the future of the Farm Input Subsidy Programme (FISP)? This was President Mutharika's flagship programme, which put Malawi on the forefront of international development debates and provided subsidies for seeds and fertiliser. Through the FISP, which was implemented against fierce donor resistance, Malawi was able to break free from a vicious cycle of hunger and food insecurity. This article from Africa Report examines whether the FISP will continue under new president Joyce Banda.

An investigation by the Conflict Awareness Project has exposed an active arms trading network of associates of former trafficker Viktor Bout that involves companies from the United States, South Africa and the United Kingdom, among other countries. All are cross-linked in a complex system with its centre in the island of Mauritius. The traffickers’ ultimate goal was to access countries such as Iran, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia and possibly Syria, researchers say.

Sudanese refugees who fled fighting between rebels and Sudan's military are suffering in primitive camps without enough aid because the international community has not provided the needed funds to help, a top United Nations official said. Antonio Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, urged donor nations to ease 'the enormous humanitarian tragedy'. Sudanese troops are fighting rebels, who were once aligned with what is now South Sudan, in two states near the countries' shared border. Guterres said more than 200,000 refugees have fled the states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile and into neighboring Ethiopia and South Sudan.

Three lawyers were arrested in Nyala after they met with the government of South Darfur. During a meeting with the head of security and head of police they handed over a petition in which they demanded President Omar Al Bashir to stop the use of excessive violence against peaceful protesters.

Child mortality rates have slowly come down, although they are still significantly high. Health experts say this is attributed to huge inequalities that exist in accessing health care. According to health experts at a Peoples’ Health Movement conference in Cape Town, last week, poverty and high unemployment rates are some of the barriers that prevent people from accessing quality health care. Director of the School of Public Health at the University of the Western Cape, Professor Dave Saunders, says child mortality in South Africa is still high and it has a direct link to the levels of unemployment and rising poverty.

Togolese Prime Minister Gilbert Fossoun Houngbo has resigned. Although no reasons for the resignation were given, TVT said President Faure Gnassingbe accepted the resignation. His resignation comes at a time when the country was preparing itself for the general election to take place at the end of this year.

Civil society groups have challenged a recent news report on increased transparency in Uganda’s oil sector and repeated their call for the government to publish all oil deals. An article that appeared in The New Vision on 30 June noted in its headline that 'Government discloses oil deals'. However, campaigners argue, only limited information - on petroleum royalty rates - has been released to MPs.

Sierra Leone's Ministry of Health on Friday declared a cholera outbreak in the country following the death of five people from the disease. Deputy minister of Health and Sanitation Mahmoud Tarawalie, made the confirmation on Friday while stressing that the authorities were putting measures in place to stem the disease. This follows reports of two deaths because of cases of severe diarrhoea in the provinces. But one of death cases was recorded in one of the slums of the capital, Freetown.

Voters in the oil-exporting Central African state of Congo Republic have turned out to elect a new parliament, with the ruling party of President Denis Sassou Nguesso and its allies seen holding the majority. Opposition parties have complained about a lack of access to state media during campaigning, and voter turnout was thin at a number of polling stations in the capital Brazzaville, some of which stayed open up to two hours late during the voting on Sunday.

Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo have agreed in principle to allow a neutral international force to patrol their borders, reports say. The proposed force would tackle militia groups in the eastern DR Congo. The deal was reached by leaders of the two countries on the side lines of an African Union summit, Rwanda's Paul Kagame told AFP news agency.

Copyright, and patents, were once about balance – balancing the public interest of encouraging creativity with the public interest of access to creative works and intellectual endeavours, states this article on copyright in the digital age. 'Copyright is not encouraging creativity or intellectual endeavour. By creating private property on goods that were paid for publicly (through paying the academics for their time), all copyright is doing here is creating artificial property rights, artificial restrictions on information.'

When Abdo Giro*, a 55-year-old evangelist minister and political dissident from southern Ethiopia, paid smugglers 55,000 birr (US$3,095) to take him from the Kenyan border town of Moyale to Johannesburg in South Africa, he was completely unprepared for the ordeal that lay ahead. Instead of the promised 'nice car', he was lucky to end up in a packed mini-bus for the first leg of the journey through Kenya and Tanzania. Smugglers are capitalizing on the demand for their services and the relative impunity with which they operate by making increasing financial demands on desperate migrants while showing little regard for their safety.

In 2010, Google announced the availability of driving directions on Google Maps in many African countries. The internet giant has now launched walking directions for 44 African countries.

Crucial hearings will begin on Monday 16 July 2012 in the High Court on time limitation periods applicable in the landmark case brought by Kenyan victims of alleged torture during the Kenya Emergency in the 1950s and 1960s. The British Government is arguing that the claims are time-barred and should be struck out, but the victims contend that this is a case in which the Judge should exercise his discretion and allow the claims to proceed. REDRESS, a London-based human rights organisation that helps torture survivors obtain justice and reparation, has made submissions in support of the victims’ claims.