Lim Ma-hui. (Photo: API)

The present global financial and economic crisis gives China an opportunity to consolidate its relationship with Africa, said South Centre advisor Dr. Lim Mah-Hui at the 18th meeting in Beijing of the Afreximbank Advisory Group on Trade and Export Development in Africa.

Grain and sugar prices surged in July. (Photo: Olivier Thuillier/FAO)

The FAO Food Price Index climbed 6 percent last month, driven by the heatwave and droughts in the United States and extreme weather conditions elsewhere. The price spike wakes up the ghost of a global crisis like the one that badly hurt the poor and vulnerable groups among the world population in 2007-2008, experts warn.

Aldo Caliari. (Photo: Center of Concern)

An innovative proposal being considered by San Bernardino County authorities, in the state of California, to respond to the ongoing mortgage market crisis “could dramatically change the outlook for the US economy… if only it was implemented in a wider scale,”, according to Aldo Caliari, director of Rethinking Bretton Woods, a project of the Center of Concern.

Photo: International Alliance of Inhabitants

The Tribunal for Evictions launched an international call to identify cases for its 2012 session. The sessions will take place on 28 Sept in Geneva within the Geneva Habitat Forum and for the launch of this year’s World Zero Evictions days.

Participants at the 2012 International AIDS Conference criticized the prevailing discrimination against sex workers in the US and other social groups world wide. The conference, held in Washington DC from 21-27 July, saw the pledging of additional funding to fight HIV/AIDS by international donors, emphasizing the need for further research to combat the epidemic, reported Eurostep web site.