Africa

Strategic minerals are back in fashion and - along with oil and gas - at the centre of geopolitical rivalries between industrial economies in Asia and the West. New technologies...

All modern economies face the challenge of securing access to strategic minerals: cobalt, used to make superalloys; rare earth metals like neodymium, which is used in the manufacture of hybrid automotive...

African trades unionists are stepping up their criticism of the Chinese companies in countries like Algeria, Nigeria and South Africa. In mid-August the Congress of South African Trade Unions called on...

African Labour Research Network investigators found that many factory inspectors at Kenya's Labour Ministry took bribes from Chinese and other companies to overlook bad practices. Despite reports that in Malawi, workers...

Chinese officials are discussing ways to use some of their country's $2.1 trillion in foreign reserves to finance what could be the world's biggest development aid programme, as Western economies are...

Opposition politicians in Delhi are pressing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Congress Party government for a full investigation into allegations of corrupt deals worth 25 billion rupees (US$520 million) in rice exports...

The world's biggest steelmaker, ArcelorMittal, is cutting back sharply on its operations in West Africa, which were part of a plan to provide about two-thirds of the company's iron ore....

More signs are emerging that China is being drawn inexorably into Africa's internal politics and is being compelled to take sides in wider geopolitical disputes. This time, the trigger was the...

Japan is to add another US$4 billion in new concessional loans to Africa over the next five years, outpacing the spending of the China-Africa Development Fund, according to Koji Yonetani, the...