Gary K. Busch examines the current stand-off between Alassane Outtara and Laurent Gbagbo through a neocolonial lens, calling into question the international response to the crisis.

Tanzania's umbrella labour union is planning a nationwide peaceful demonstrations to protest the government's decision to hike power tariffs by 18.5 per cent effective 1 January 2011, the body's leadership said. 'As workers we are not convinced with the way the government and the Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO) decided to increase power tariffs while aware that most of our people are leading miserable lives,' said Nicholas Mgaya, acting secretary general of the Trade Union Congress of Tanzania (TUCTA).

The Global Fund has once again rejected Malawi’s request for funding which it submitted last year amounting to about $560million to support its national response towards HIV/AIDS for a five-year period. Principal Secretary in the Office of the President responsible for HIV/Aids and Malnutrition, Mary Shaba, confirmed the board’s rejection but said the country was still waiting for official communication from the Global Fund on the reasons that led to such decision. However, other reports indicate that Malawi’s proposal was rejected because the country’s laws are rigid and do not favour the marginalised groups. Malawi still criminalises homosexuality and prostitution.

The world's biggest corporations are rushing to grab and convert living plant matter - called 'biomass' - into fuel, chemicals, and other profitable products. This new 'biomass economy' represents a trillion dollar industry but it will not feed the people or stop climate change. In order to shed light on this new economy, farm leaders from the Global South participated in a public forum to share their reality and propose alternatives. Presented by Food Secure Canada with: Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, Development and Peace, ETC Group, GRAIN, Greenpeace, Inter Pares, National Farmers Union, Peoples Food Policy Project, The Ram's Horn, Union Paysanne, USC Canada. Eight videos from the forum are available through the link provided.

The world's biggest corporations are rushing to grab and convert living plant matter - called 'biomass' - into fuel, chemicals, and other profitable products. This new 'biomass economy' represents a trillion dollar industry but it will not feed the people or stop climate change. In order to shed light on this new economy, farm leaders from the global South participated in a public forum to share their reality and propose alternatives. This page presents a series of videos from the forum.

In an event on sexual orientation at UN Headquarters in New York, held in conjunction with Human Rights Day, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon deplored discrimination against homosexuals and the violence of which they are often victims, for which the perpetrators escape punishment. Ban recognised that social attitudes run deep and social change often comes only with time, but he highlighted the collective responsibility to stand against discrimination, to defend fellow human beings and fundamental principles. Ban noted that during his recent trips to Africa, he urged leaders to do away with laws criminalising homosexuality.

'Control and Sexuality' by Ziba Mir-Hosseini and Vanja Hamzi? examines zina laws in some Muslim contexts and communities in order to explore connections between the criminalisation of sexuality, gender-based violence and women’s rights activism. It is hoped that the publication will help activists, policy-makers, researchers and other civil society actors acquire a better understanding of how culture and/or religion are invoked to justify laws that criminalise women’s sexuality and subject them to cruel, inhuman and degrading forms of punishment.

The journal Humanity now has a blog that will feature debates about the big and small issues of human rights, humanitarianism and development. Current posts include:
- Human rights as a form of idealism
- The World Bank blog site
- The velvet glove of humanitarian biomedicine.

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 book that reinforces racial prejudice against black women has been approved for distribution in the Brazilian education system. Sign a petition demanding that the Brazil ‘takes appropriate action in relation to racist books’.

A China-Africa Dialogue took place recently in China, organised by the Heinrich Böll Foundation, Beijing office in collaboration with the Institute of West Asian and African Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Institute of African Studies, Zhejiang Normal University. The first article of this edition, by Antony Otieno Ong’ayo, provides an overview of the implementation and the value of these Dialogues.

The second article, by Chris Alden and Dan Large, looks at the existence of ‘exceptionalism’ in China’s relations towards Africa. They trace the development of this exceptionalism in China’s foreign policy and the rhetorical manifestation of this in China’s relations with Africa. This is followed by an article focused on an important domestic issue in China, the rising price of food and access to food amongst Chinese workers. Finally, a report by ActionAid just released puts SABMiller in the spotlight. It reports that the company has avoided paying taxes in African countries, as well as India.

A number of important reports have recently become available, notably a series of Policy Briefs by the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) collaborative research China-Africa Project. A list of links to these Briefs are provided in [pdf].

‘Is China smartening up its environmental and social act in Africa? It certainly wants to be seen as doing just that’, writes Stephen Marks.

identity - making decisions - peer pressure - values - HIV and AIDS - love - sex... These are just a few of the topics covered by 'My Life - Starting Now'. This 80-page manual, no. 8 in the Called to Care toolkit published by the Strategies for Hope Trust, focuses on knowledge and lifeskills for young people aged 10 to 15.

The policies pursued by the collective imperialist triad (USA, Europe, Japan), which aim exclusively at restoring the system to what it was before 2008, are bound to fail. As a result, the North-South conflict moves to the forefront. By taking independent initiatives, the countries of the South can take this opportunity to move ahead towards the construction of the only effective and viable alternative for their liberation from the domination of imperialist monopolies.

The CODESRIA Lecture Series is a major outlet for disseminating special lectures and keynote addresses emanating from various scientific fora provided by the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA). This series projects CODESRIA’s main thematic areas, covering Africa’s social, economic, political and intellectual development. The neoliberal domination and the prioritisation of the private ruled by the market have deeply affected the educational models, and produced significant alterations on the social role of higher education institutions in Africa.

Sanctions-busting was a game perfected by the apartheid regime, but modern-day corporates are also adept at finding ways to exploit Africa's minerals, writes Khadija Sharife.

A satellite imagery tool that will make an unprecedented amount of environmental data available freely online has been launched at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 16), in Mexico. Earth Engine, launched by Google on 3 December, aims to enable scientists to monitor and measure changes in the Earth's environment, such as global land cover, and hopefully help slow deforestation in the process.

Mame Penda Diouf talks over car horns and city bus engines as she shows off potted lettuce, mint and potato plants at a traffic circle in the Senegal capital, Dakar. A trader and horticulture trainer, she says micro-gardening creates jobs and allows people to better feed their families. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and many other international and local institutions are pushing just that message – that micro-gardening and other forms of urban horticulture can go a long way to boosting city dwellers’ food security and improving living conditions.

The WikiLeaks Cablegate affair is making it clear to governments that they cannot so easily control what is secret and what is not, said Anriette Esterhuysen, executive director of the Association for Progressive Communication (APC), the world’s longest-running online progressive network founded in 1990. If governments respond rationally, they will realise that it is cumbersome and expensive to keep information secret in a connected networked world and that they should only incur this expense when really necessary, she elaborated.

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.