People across the world leave their homes, families and countries in search of work and education, and to escape poverty, discrimination and conflict. Many risk everything, even their lives, for security and a chance to earn a living. At every step, they are vulnerable to exploitation, fraud and human rights abuses.

In this week's emerging powers news roundup, China joins the US in making key concessions in Copenhagen, and China continues to invest in, among other countries, Guinea, Ghana Botswana, as Sino-African trade grows to nearly $107 billion in the past year.

Many governments' policies toward migrants worldwide expose them to human rights abuses including labor exploitation, inadequate access to health care, and prolonged detention in poor, overcrowded conditions, Human Rights Watch has said, in advance of International Migrants Day, on December 18, 2009.

The Deputy Commander for Civil/Military Affairs of the US African Command (AFRICOM), Amb. Anthony Holmes, Wednesday visited Luanda, Angola, to foster a working relationship with the Angolan government.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, an arm of the UN, the global food crisis is worsening. In 2009, over 1 billion people were undernourished globally, up from 873 million in 2004-2006; the accelerating growth and urbanisation of the world’s population, which is predominantly taking place in the developing world, is increasing the pressure on food resources and provoking food security fears.

Ama Biney reviews two recent books, united in their call for Africa’s disengagement from aid dependency, but with sharply contrasting ideological visions for how to do this and to what end: Dambisa Moyo’s Dead Aid Why Aid is Not Working and How There is Another Way for Africa and Yash Tandon’s Ending Aid Dependence.

In the wake of the Sharm El-Shikh meeting, Chinese ministries and organizations are even busier mobilising all necessary resources to make up a few shortfalls in achieving “the eight policy measures to enhance practical cooperation with African countries, writes Liu Haifang.

The International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) recently released a 2010 wall calendar. With a theme of democracy and elections, the calendar features photos from IFES' photography competition held this year that represent efforts to strengthen civil society and democratic governance around the world

Stephen Marks compiles a roundup of emerging players in Africa News.

When an aid vehicle is stolen in the eastern Chad town of Abéché, some people cheer and say the aid organization got what it deserved, according to the French think-tank Emergency Rehabilitation Development (URD), which is preparing a report on the impact of international aid groups on Abéché residents.

China is continuing to show an interest in developing African research capacity with the announcement of a cooperation programme in science and technology.

Mauritanian authorities detained three top businessmen charged with embezzling millions of euros of public funds late on Wednesday in a case that has sparked new political tensions in the desert state.

In the last three decades, changes in the global economy have led to debt and balance of payments crises in many African countries. They desperately needed foreign exchange which they could only get from the World Bank and the IMF. These institutions used this opportunity to expand their influence over the recipients' national policies. This paper discusses country ownership which is a central issue of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness.

Some 36 million people have been cured of tuberculosis (TB) over the past 15 years through a rigorous approach to treatment, according to the World Health Organisation. However, last year 1.8 million people died from TB including half a million deaths associated with HIV - many of them because they did not access antiretrovirals.

Several participants attending a forum on migration in the Arab and African regions have deplored the conditions in which migrants who are either in transit or in residence are treated.

Freelancers now make up nearly 45 percent of all journalists jailed worldwide, a dramatic recent increase that reflects the evolution of the global news business, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. In its annual census of imprisoned journalists, CPJ found a total of 136 reporters, editors, and photojournalists behind bars on December 1, an increase of 11 from the 2008 tally.

The UN has warned that the recent kidnapping of two aid workers in the northeastern town of Birao in Central African Republic will have a highly damaging impact on humanitarian activities in the remote, impoverished Vakaga region.

Twenty-two developing countries have agreed to cut tariffs on manufactured goods in a bid to boost South-South trade in the absence of progress in the Doha Round.

In this week's emerging powers news roundup, South Korea pledged to double aid to African nations over the next three years, China and the World Bank plan to set up low-cost factories in new industrial zones in Africa, China turns to Egypt for production of ready-made garments.

The IIE Scholar Rescue Fund is pleased to announce a call for applications for the IIE Scholar Rescue Fund (SRF). Fellowships support temporary academic positions at safe universities and colleges anywhere in the world for threatened academics whose lives and work are in danger in their home countries. Applications are due January 15 2009.