Twelve of the world's poorest countries - including Afghanistan, Pakistan and seven nations in Africa - are going to be hit as the Conservative government looks to slash $377 million in foreign aid over the next three years, Postmedia News has learned. The exact impact on each country is unclear, but the cuts are expected to prompt anger and frustration from the affected countries, which rely on international assistance to provide food and other services to millions of citizens. A number had already seen major reductions three years ago.

Global foreign direct investment (FDI) outflows rose by 16 per cent in 2011 to an estimated US$1.66 trillion, surpassing the pre-crisis levels of 2007, UNCTAD’s latest Global Investment Trends Monitor reports. This growth was due in large part to cross-border mergers and acquisitions and to increased amounts of cash reserves kept in foreign affiliates, the Monitor, No. 9, says. The report notes that much-needed direct investment in new productive assets through greenfield investment projects or capital expenditures in existing foreign affiliates appeared to be limited.

The increased strength of emerging countries of the South confronts the challenges of contemporary globalization.

The first book to focus on China’s involvement in Angola presents perspectives from both countries.

The intersection between the internet and human rights, including freedoms of expression and association, is increasingly important as the internet becomes more universal, and increasingly complex as the internet affects more aspects of society, economy, politics and culture. This report suggests two ways to map this intersection, and raises a number of questions that need to be considered by those concerned with the internet, with rights, and with wider public policy.

In this programme, Africa Today interviews Colin Rajah, the Director of International Migrant Rights and Global Justice Program at the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR) on global migration and immigration.

This workshop aims to enhance our understanding of the nature of social change and transformations (at global, national or local levels) in which poverty alleviation, eradication, and prevention is either the axis of a social strategy or a tangible result.

Mining is still a good business in Africa. But over the decades, it is outsiders who have benefited from the continent’s resources. Now governments have pledged to change this.

Each year, the nine nuclear-armed nations spend a combined total of more than US$100 billion on their nuclear forces – assembling new warheads, modernizing old ones, and building ballistic missiles, bombers and submarines to launch them. Much of this work is being carried out by private companies. How can we stop it? 'Don’t Bank on the Bomb' is the first major global report on the financing of companies that manufacture, modernize and maintain nuclear weapons and their delivery vehicles. It identifies more than 300 banks, insurance companies, pension funds and asset managers from 30 countries that invest significantly in 20 major nuclear weapons producers.

IMF policy recommendations are often criticised for being too restrictive, procyclical and paying little attention to country-specific circumstances. In the aftermath of the 2008 crisis, the Fund showed some policy rethinking, bringing about expectations of change. However, Rathin Roy and Raquel A. Ramos of the UNDP Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth analyse IMF policy recommendations given to developing countries and conclude that headquarters’ receptiveness to new approaches has not been translated into policy analysis or recommendations.

A report released on Tuesday 27 March by the UN refugee agency shows that new conflicts and a rising outflow from older crisis spots such as Afghanistan together contributed to a 20 per cent rise in asylum claims in industrialized countries in 2011. UNHCR's report, 'Asylum Levels and Trends in Industrialized Countries 2011', says that an estimated 441,300 asylum claims were recorded last year compared to 368,000 in 2010. The report covers 44 countries in Europe, North America, Australasia and north-east Asia.

This month the UN Commission on the Status of Women failed to adopt agreed conclusions at its 56th session on the basis of safeguarding 'traditional values' at the expense of human rights and fundamental freedoms of women. 'Together with our partner feminist and women's rights organisations, we say NO to any re-opening of negotiations on the already established international agreements on women’s human rights and call on all governments to demonstrate their commitments to promote, protect and fulfill human rights and fundamental freedoms of women.'

Cholera infections are ten times higher than the number of cases reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO), according to new estimates of the global disease burden. Cholera is caused by eating food or drinking water contaminated with the Vibrio cholera bacterium. The disease causes watery diarrhoea and severe dehydration that can be fatal. In a study published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organisation this month (1 March), researchers from the International Vaccine Institute, in South Korea found a more accurate estimate of the global cholera burden is nearly three million cases a year, and around 93,000 deaths - the majority in children under the age of five.

Trade envoys of India, Brazil, and South Africa have warned industrialised countries not to hijack the Doha multilateral trade negotiations by adopting the controversial plurilateral approach to liberalise trade in services. A plurilateral agreement allows member countries to voluntarily agree to new rules. In contrast, in a multilateral agreement all members have to be in agreement. This, they say, could ultimately undermine 'the possibility of resuscitating the Doha Round'. The Doha Development Agenda was launched almost 11 years ago to correct the historical imbalances and asymmetries in the global trading system and was designed to enable poorer countries to integrate into the system.

'For me the Occupy Wall Street movement expansion is, first, a clear sign of the fact that there are many more people than we can imagine wishing to change the world; and, second, that the tools and institutions we have to make it possible for people to participate in politics are absolutely insufficient and inadequate.' This is according to Chico Whitaker, a Brazilian activist and organizer who helped launch the World Social Forums in 2001, in an interview with US Social Forum news.

Venda's cultural and ecological diversity are increasingly threatened by land grabbing, development projects, tourism and now mining. Coal of Africa (CoAL), an Australian mining company, has proposed the Makhado Coking Coal Project. If this goes ahead, the community faces severe ecological, social and economic damage to their ancestral homes. The biggest concern is water because this is an area where water is already scarce.

A year later and South Africa has still not convinced the world or the creator of Brics why it belongs in the exclusive emerging-giant grouping that includes Brazil, Russia, India and China. 'It's just wrong. South Africa doesn't belong in Brics,' said Jim O'Neill, global chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, who coined the term 'Bric' 10 years ago. In an interview with the Mail & Guardian in London this week, O'Neill was highly critical of South Africa's position in this political bloc. 'South Africa has too small an economy. There are not many similarities with the other four countries in terms of the numbers. In fact, South Africa's inclusion has somewhat weakened the group's power.'

In this week's edition of the Emerging Powers News Round-Up, read a comprehensive list of news stories and opinion pieces related to China, India and other emerging powers...

A new issue of Race & Class features an article on 'Malcolm X at the Oxford Union' in 1964. Saladin M. Ambar, who examines Malcolm's speech and the context in which it was given, reveals a key change in Malcolm's thinking on nationalism in response to the call for decolonisation in Africa and the extension of human rights to other marginalised groups throughout the world.

Even if the London Conference on Somalia hosted by the UK government last month may not have been yet another business opportunity for Western governments and companies, the timing is certainly suspect.