The debate on BRICS is polarized between pro and anti-BRICS elements represented in the South African government and left-leaning civil society activists and academics. It is uncertain South Africa’s new partners in BRIC will treat the country differently

BRICS offer some of the most extreme sites of new sub-imperialism in the world today. They lubricate world neoliberalism, hasten world eco-destruction and serve as coordinators of hinterland looting. The BRICS hegemonic project should be resisted.

Contrary to the claims of critics, China’s partnership with Africa is based on sincere friendship, equality and mutual respect for the sovereignty through non-interference in domestic affairs and the offer of loans and grants

There is little hope for a genuine referendum on self-determination for the Sahrawi people. Their international supporters and the UN General Assembly should now work towards universal recognition and acceptance of the statehood of Western Sahara.

The continental body, which admitted Western Sahara to its membership in 1982, has consistently defended the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination and independence. But Morocco has always proved to be cunning.

Aids is a symptom of an unjust global order. Mass poverty leaves people with no option other than labour migration and transactional sex, which are the key drivers of HIV transmission in southern Africa

In the quest to end racial discrimination at the World Bank, Justice for Blacks presents an open letter to President Obama beseeching him to honour in deeds the promissory note that the founding fathers of America issued in 1776 that all people are created equal and should receive equal treatment

Whether Cyril Ramaphosa, the new ANC deputy president, can make any difference in the troubled ANC government will depend heavily on how much power, support and freedom President Jacob Zuma, gives him.

In insisting on referring to Africa's ethnic groups as 'tribes' and publishing the idea that the continent's woes have their origins in the tribalism of its leadership and its peoples, we collaborate in a degrading and demeaning description of Africans, argues Killian Ngala

An attempt to twist posterity and the archival record for future generations has been exposed as a consequence of a British court ruling in a case by Kenyan freedom fighters

Should the neo-colonial fisheries partnership be agreed upon, it would give economic and political support to the Moroccan regime's occupation of Western Sahara, while furthering imperial resource-grab

Africa will continue to be exploited, pillaged, plundered and militarized by the US administration led by Barack Obama as he continues to serve neoliberal imperialist interests

In 2001 Brazil invested $69 billion in Africa. By 2009, the latest figures available, that had swelled to $214 billion. At first Brazilian firms focused their efforts on Lusophone Africa, Angola and Mozambique in particular, capitalising on linguistic and cultural affinity to gain a foothold. Now they are spreading across the continent, reports this Economist article.

The movement to bring greater transparency to the oil, gas and mining industries is facing a crucial time in its development and needs to overcome three significant challenges to continue to be successful, Daniel Kaufmann, head of the international transparency watchdog Revenue Watch Institute told TrustLaw. The transparency movement must become more global, the data produced by the extractive industries must be clear and comparable across countries, and the movement must work to build up expertise within resource-rich countries so that local transparency watchdogs, governments and media can interpret the data, Kaufmann, a former World Bank economist, said.

A total of 176 countries Monday 12 November adopted what World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Margaret Chan called a 'game-changing' global agreement to combat the illegal tobacco trade. PANA reports that the pact was ratified at a meeting in Seoul, South Korea, on WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The agreement came into force in 2005. 'The treaty envisages an international tracking system which aims to halt the smuggling and counterfeiting of tobacco products - a trade which accounts for 11 per cent of the total tobacco market and costs governments an estimated US$40 billion in lost tax revenue,' the WHO said in a statement.

In this blog entry, Julia Farrington, Head of Arts at Index on Censorship, reports on the launch of Arstfex, the first international civil society network dedicated to promoting free expression for artists. 'There are clearly parallels between investigative journalists and artists who reveal uncomfortable truths. But when controversy breaks, artists are much more exposed because they use their own personal language to tell the story, and bring their own experience and imagination into the narrative.'

An Ethiopia woman revealed that she was the victim of sex slavery after she attempted to find work as a domestic worker in Saudi Arabia. For H, who asked that her identity remain anonymous, her ordeal began after she took a boat to Yemen, where after two months she was able to cross into Saudi Arabia and was hired by what she told Bikyamasr.com was a 'nice couple' for a 'decent salary.' Tens of thousands of Ethiopian migrants and refugees have entered Yemen since the end of July, according to a new report published by the Danish Refugee Council (DRC).

A group of Mauritanian bloggers launched a blogging campaign under the theme 'Against foreign mining companies' at the beginning of October. For the bloggers, this campaign was intended to share their opinions about the issue of foreign companies, accused of looting Mauritania's mineral wealth. This campaign was inaugurated by publishing a series of posts at the same time, and continued for a week.

Uganda has suspended the issuance of new mining licences and put on notice those with non-performing ones following revelations that a number were handed out irregularly. Officials from the Ministry of Energy said most of the illegal licences had ended up in the hands of speculators who lacked the financial or technical ability to deliver. The department of geological survey and mines in the Ministry of Energy - Uganda’s licensing authority - has asked the speculators to justify why their licences should not be revoked.

AID/WATCH in coordination with the Minerals Policy Institute have released a letter calling on the government to stop using Australian aid funds to support the expansion of Australian mining interests overseas. Money from the aid program is being used to fund Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs for mining companies who are members of the Australian Africa Mining Industry Group. A pilot project has been established that provides funds through the Development Assistance Program allocating $30,000 of funding for Australian mining companies to run CSR programs and promote sustainability. At least one of the companies receiving funding, Paladin, have been implicated in a range of labour and environmental abuses at their operations in Africa, and also accused of corruption.