Debate on the nationalisation of the mining industry was revived in Parliament, with the chairman of the mineral resources portfolio committee saying the only way to avert it was to create a successful state- owned mining company.And a government official told the committee that such a company already existed, and had begun to build up an asset base.

Samba Thiam

Africa the place is not poor, but Africans are, writes Walugembe Tom – and you ‘do not have to be a genius to figure out’ why.

This week, Stephen Marks reviews Jamie Monson's book, . The book tells the story of the TAZARA Railway - a symbol of the first heroic stage of China’s involvement in Africa and an ideologically inspired symbol of anti-imperialist solidarity, in contrast with today’s more pragmatic and market-driven Chinese engagement with the continent.

Africa's success in avoiding the worst of the economic crisis that has swept the industrialised world has been due in large part to the remarkable growth of trade and investment with China, India, Brazil and other “emerging” developing countries.

China has in recent years taken great pains to show the world that it is a well-rounded emerging power with a complete strategy for engagement in places like Africa. Its Confucius institutes are an interesting feature in this show of sophistication.

Lack of structural reforms in the domestic economy puts Russia in an awkward position in the BRIC alliance.

This week, Namibia plans to expand its inquiry on China, the U.S. gets nervous about China's growing footprint across Africa, and China opposes the arrest of LRA leader Kony.

In company news and analysis, FirstRand partners China Construction Bank in Africa, and the contracted Chinese firm will replace faulty SAT-1 at no extra cost to Nigeria.

In this week's news on cooperation, visits and exchanges, Chinese special envoy visits Senegal, Nigeria's commerce minister set to visit India, and Liberia cooperates with China to improve its law system.

The Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria on Friday granted Zimbabwe $37.9 million, resuming support after getting assurances from the new unity government that the money would not be misused. The fund said last year Zimbabwe's central bank had confiscated $7.3 million in 2007 meant for health programmes. The central bank has since returned the money, Global Fund officials said.

High-profile websites including Google, Facebook and Twitter have been targeted by hackers in what is described as a "massively co-ordinated attack". Reports suggest the strike may have been aimed at a single user, pro-Georgian blogger known as Cyxymu. Twitter was taken offline for more than two hours whilst Facebook's service was "degraded", according to the firms.

The governing body of AI, the International Executive Committee (IEC) seeks applications for the next Secretary General, who will be a leader in progressing this work, strengthening AI’s position in the international human rights movement, developing partnerships outside AI and building stronger links with AI’s national Sections.

The Tech Awards program inspires global engagement in applying technology to humanity's most pressing problems by recognizing the best of those who are utilizing innovative technology solutions to address the most urgent critical issues facing our planet. People all over the world are profoundly improving the human condition in the areas of education, equality, environment, health, and economic development through the use of technology.

International media attention is focused this week on the visit of the US Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, to seven countries in Africa. But what is the significance of Clinton’s visit? Does it really hold out hope for Africa? There are three dimensions to this visit: AGOA, oil and natural resource exploitation, and security. And in each case, it is US corporate interests, not the interests of Africans, that are being pushed, argues Firoze Manji from Pambazuka News.

‘In Africa, political power is often used as a “get out of jail free” card, immunising the venal political elite through various mechanisms,’ Khadija Sharife tells Pambazuka News. But, says Sharife, while corruption may be ‘rampant’ in Africa, this is ‘only half the story’: Corrupt government leaders get away with graft much more easily and more frequently, thanks to international financial enablers, based in ‘transparent’ locations from London to New York. The key to addressing corruption, Sharife suggests, is to scrutinise unchecked and unregulated shadow economies 'in developed and developing countries alike'.

A private oil company in Angola, given permission by the state oil company Sonangol to bid for potentially lucrative oil rights, has shareholders with the same names as Sonangol's chairman and other top officials, Global Witness has learned. Angola is one of the two top oil-producing countries in sub-Saharan Africa but most of its people still live in dire poverty.

Four African Heads of State have drawn the attention of President Barack Obama's Administration to the fact that Africa as a continent was seeking partnership and not patronage. A release from the World Bank Office in Accra on Wednesday said President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia; President Paul Kagame of Rwanda; President Seretse Khama Ian Khama of Botswana and President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal said this in a joint statement.

In the third quarterly report on the Macau Forum, Lucy Corkin provides a roundup of the latest political and economic developments in the countries that constitute the Macau Hub. From the recent appointment of a new chief executive in Macau to the Bank of China using Macau as a platform to promote greater ties between China and the Portuguese speaking countries in Africa and Brazil, Corkin astutely explores the interconnectedness between these issues.

Proceedings of the Fifth Southern African Forum on Trade (SAFT) held in Pretoria, South Africa, on 6–7 August 2008. Hosted by the Institute of Global Dialogue and the Friedrich Erbert Stiftung (FES) Namibia. The publication has a collection of articles from the workshop that explores, inter alia, issues relating regional integration process in the SADC region, questions of the North-South Corridor and the role of China and India in southern Africa.