The International Telecommunications Society is pleased to issue a call for papers for its 17th Biennial Conference to be held in Montreal, Canada, June 24-27, 2008. The theme of the conference is “The Changing Structure of the Telecommunications Industry and the New Role of Regulation. The submission deadline is October 31st, 2007.

The Human Rights Advocates Program (HRAP) at Columbia University is now taking applications for the 2008 session. The 2008 HRAP focuses on human rights and globalization. The Program is designed for experienced lawyers, journalists, teachers, social workers, community organizers, and other human rights activists working with non-governmental organizations in labor rights, migration, health, social exclusion, environmental justice, and corporate social accountability.

China's "no-strings-attached" investments in Africa appear to many a welcome alternative to the conditional loans offered by the World Bank and IMF. But what consequences will China's growing involvement on the continent have for Africans? China has become the new lead developer in many African countries, out-funding the international financial institutions and other bilateral donors in some cases.

United Planet undertakes a diverse and creative range of educational, humanitarian, and peace-building initiatives. People of all ages, backgrounds, and nationalities are invited to join United Planet's membership in "a community beyond borders." You can volunteer to support children and the disabled in communties throughout France and Italy. You can assist in agricultural, environmental, and community projects in New Zealand, Nepal, and India. You can help with AIDS/HIV programs in Uganda, Russia, Nigeria, and more. You can assist in human rights issues in Brazil, Bolivia, Mozambique, and Lithuania.

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) and the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) are pleased to announce the two-day advanced policy and research dialogue which they are jointly hosting in Cotonou, Benin Republic, on 24 and 25 September, 2007 on the theme of The Politics of Succession in West Africa’s Democracies. The dialogue is a follow-up to a survey of governance trends in West Africacarried out in 2006 under the auspices of the two institutions.

There is an innate paradox in the global conversation about poverty alleviation that eludes even the most astute scholars. Proponents of foreign aid are advocating for a big push, featuring an increase in foreign aid through which billions of dollars could be transferred to the poor. Yet $2.3 trillion in foreign aid and nearly sixty years later, over one billion people around the world are still hungry, infirm, illiterate and homeless.

Mauritanian lawmakers yesterday outlawed slavery in the desert country. With effect, those found promoting slavery or practising the century old culture will face between five and 10 years in prison. The leader of the anti-slavery group, SOS-Esclaves, Boubacar Ould Messaoud, expressed satisfaction about the development, describing it as “a great victory for the democrats and the people of Mauritania."

The Reuters Foundation is offering full bursaries for journalists from developing countries to attend training on business writing. The course is scheduled for November 5 to 16 in London. The bursaries include travel costs, lodging and a modest living allowance. Partially funded bursaries are also available for journalists at organizations with little or no resources for training. The course provides training on international standards of reporting and writing about business news and issues. The application deadline is September 10, 2007.

Workers migrate away from their families to serve as labor in rich countries and send capital in the form of remittances, or money transfers, back to their loved ones in impoverished communities around the world,say Yania Marcelino and Shannah Kurland in a report for New America Media. But a key challenge faced by these communities is the high fees associated with remittance transactions. Studies show that if money-transfer fees were cut in half, 33 million people could be lifted out of poverty in the developing world.

This guide illustrates both how to find resources for teaching about Africa on-line; and how to navigate the Internet. Users can access the African Studies World-Wide Web (WWW) database at the University of Pennsylvania, which contains resources and information on events and issues that are related to African countries. These materials are available for use by students, teachers, librarians, the business community, and the general public.

The recent raid on a Chinese software piracy syndicate would benefit the fight against piracy in Nigeria, according to the Licensing and Compliance Manager at Microsoft Nigeria, Mr. John Okereke. Speaking in Lagos, Mr. Okereke said, the result of what he described as the largest investigation and raid of its kind in the world,would boost the Nigerian software market.

Dozens of experts from around the world – including representatives from United Nations agencies, religious and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), law enforcement agencies, Government and research institutions – are meeting in Addis Ababa on ways to eradicate the practice of female genital mutilation or cutting (FGM/C). More than 100 million women and girls worldwide have undergone a form of FGM/C, which has serious physical and psychological effects.

This paper published by WIDER examines the relationship between state failure and development assistance. It begins by looking at poor development performance as a criterion for state failure and then examines common causes why states fail, looking in particular at the cases of Burma, Rwanda and Zambia. The author argues that donors much be strongly engaged in fragile states in order to build political accountability and institutional capacity, including in cases where fragile states lack political will.

The Draft Guiding Principles on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights were developed over a five year period to formulate rules of action to put an end to extreme poverty and realize human rights for all, including the poorest of the poor. For the first time in its history, the United Nations proposed an international law document which considers the fight against extreme poverty as an obligation for all States. Consultations on this text were launched for 2007 by the Human Rights Council.

Entering the 21st century, China has a global agenda. Its aim is to establish itself as a genuine super-power to rival the United States militarily, politically and economically. In the context of these ambitions over the past decade and a half, China has endeavored determinedly to develop an array of economic relationships, beyond its traditional trading partners of Asia, North America and Europe. In no uncertain terms, it is aggressively integrating itself into the economies of South America and, of course, Africa.

The Synergos Institute’s Senior Fellows Program is an international network of distinguished philanthropic and other civil society leaders committed to collaborative efforts that address the underlying causes of poverty and inequity. Synergos Senior Fellows participate in a three-year learning and action program that aims to build their skills, spread their knowledge, and deepen their impact. The deadline for applications is 20 August 2007.

Continued insecurity and poor roads have been restricting humanitarian access to thousands of internally displaced people in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to an official of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Over half of the world’s major exporting countries are still lacking the political will to prosecute foreign bribery, according to a new report by Transparency International (TI). The 2007 TI Progress Report on OECD Convention Enforcement shows that more than half of 34 parties to the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials are not enforcing the Convention or keeping their commitments. Signatory countries account for about two-thirds of world exports of goods and services. At the same time, there is now significant enforcement in 14 countries compared with 12 in 2006 and 8 in 2005.

While China's growing trade and investment flows to Africa have sparked a sometimes contentious debate with the United States and Europe over who has the continent's best interests at heart, a closer look at the dynamic developing reveals a political landscape where the rhetoric is rarely in line with the reality, observers say.

China defended its stance on Darfur on Friday and urged patience as Western critics warned that Beijing's reluctance to back stronger action in the troubled Sudanese region could blight Olympic Games goodwill. China has pressed Sudan to accept U.N. peacekeepers alongside African Union forces struggling to quell bloodshed in Darfur. Experts estimate that 200,000 people have died and 2.1 million been displaced there by violence involving pro-government Arab militia fighting other ethnic groups.