ECONOMY-IRAN: Gas Guzzlers Get Their Way

Iran is among the world's largest crude oil exporters, but domestic political compulsions have compelled the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to squander oil revenues and pamper motorists with heavily subsidised, imported gasoline.

ECONOMY: China Triples Output as New Industrial Powerhouse

The world's fastest growing developing nations, including China, India and South Africa, contributed significantly to the rise in world industrial output last year, according to the Vienna-based U.N. Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO).

TRADE: ‘Win-Win’ Deals at China-Africa Summit

A flurry of trade deals worth two billion US dollars were signed here during an unprecedented China-Africa summit, aimed at forging closer links with the resource-rich continent. But while talking business China showed susceptibility to criticism that it is behaving like a modern colonial power.

RWANDA: Controversy Over Plan to Join East African Economic Community

Rwanda and Burundi may be sworn in as new members of the East African Economic Community (EAC) when the grouping holds its next summit, Nov. 30, in the Tanzanian financial centre of Dar-es-Salam. The regional organisation presently comprises Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, and is headquartered in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha.

INDIA: Patents Case Challenges the World

Médecins Sans Frontières and other groups campaigning for access to affordable medicines in developing countries are closely following a case filed by the Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Novartis against Indian patent law.

CHINA: Winning Friends and Influence in Africa

Accused of supporting corrupt African regimes to facilitate its imports of oil and raw materials from the resource-rich continent, China is staging a grand diplomatic forum to defend its dealings with Africa.

DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: Think Global, Eat Local

It's certainly a logical suggestion: in an effort to make cocoa-producing countries in Africa less dependent on consumers abroad, why not increase domestic consumption of cocoa products?

ENVIRONMENT-JAPAN: Readying for Life Without Bluefin Tuna Dishes

Fish vendors in this seafood crazy country are yet to recover from the shock of seeing their government accept a drastic 50 percent cut in Japan's catches of the prized southern bluefin tuna.

ECONOMY-MAURITIUS: Port Louis Targets Neighbours for Clothing Exports

Mauritius is eyeing other markets in Africa as part of its effort to rebuild export manufacturing of clothing. This includes targeting South Africa, which will be limiting certain Chinese imports in 2007.

TRADE: Small Nations’ Doubts About EU Get Bigger

A proposal by Senegalese Trade Minister Mamadou Diop to postpone the 2008 deadline for signing trade agreements with the European Union found much support at a meeting here Thursday.

EL SALVADOR-US: Free Trade Deal a Menace to Local Producers

Seven months after the Central American free trade treaty with the United States came into effect, small-scale producers and economists in El Salvador say that it only benefits a few sectors of society, to the detriment of most national production and thousands of jobs.

ECONOMY: The Curate’s Egg That Is Africa-Asia Trade

Emerging global powers China and India, both thirsty for new markets and energy resources, are increasing efforts to secure a dominant position in Africa.

LABOUR-NEPAL: Garment Industry Unravels Amid Uncertainty

Business and labour are fighting to gain the upper hand during Nepal's political transition, a process that has helped to sideline the unemployed workers and anxious factory owners of the troubled garment industry.

THAILAND: Where Real Is Fake and Fake Is Real

Museums showcasing the weird and the wacky abound on this planet, but how about a museum of phony wares?

DEVELOPMENT: Exports A Way Out of Poverty?

Imagine the world's poorest trading their way out of poverty. A grand vision indeed, but how to turn it into reality?

TRADE: EU Move Could Bring Disaster to the Poor

The decision announced by the European Union to pursue bilateral trade deals in the absence of a comprehensive world trade agreement can mean disaster for poor countries.

POLITICS: Indo-US Nuclear Deal Hits Doldrums

The controversial United States-India "civilian nuclear cooperation" agreement met with a major setback over the weekend when the Senate formally went into recess without voting for a bill which would have granted the President George W. Bush the necessary powers to enable the deal to be implemented.

LABOUR-BANGLADESH: Garment Exports Thrive on Dirt Wages

Bangladesh's garment industry may have survived the quota-free global trade regime but the eight billion dollar earnings it posted in the last fiscal year ending June, was built on the backs of two million workers barely able to keep body and soul together on dirt wages.

POLITICS-JAPAN: In Two Minds About the Thai Coup

Thailand's 18th military coup, though bloodless and relatively calm, has raised troubling issues for Japan that plays a key role in South-east Asia's development.

ECONOMY-ASIA: Coup Puts Indo-Thai Free Trade Deal in Doldrums

An ambitious free trade agreement (FTA) between India and Thailand may have been stalled indefinitely by the Sep. 19 military coup. The two countries were meant to renegotiate the FTA after elections in Thailand set for mid-October, but this process is now shrouded in uncertainty.

FINANCE: ‘Bank and Fund Won’t Change Their Spots’

Can the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) be reformed or should they both be boycotted and dismantled? This is the growing debate that has been fuelled in the aftermath of the organisations' annual meetings in Singapore last week.