Accra Daily Mail: Africa looks East for aid and trade
Eager to maintain the growth that has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty in their own countries, Asia’s booming economies are courting cash-poor but resource-rich African countries with billions of dollars worth of investments, trade deals and development aid. Yet even as Africa enjoys strong growth due in part to increased exports to Asia, concerns are mounting that Africa’s new partners aren’t playing by the North’s rules of the trade and aid game.

The Tennessean—Central Africa could pose test for Obama
While Iraq and Afghanistan dominate U.S. media coverage of foreign policy challenges facing President-elect Barack Obama, a writer in the Tennessean says the new president’s first opportunity to make a bold decision may well come from Africa, whose stability is crucial to international order and the future of the global economy. The writer points to the crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as possibly the best opportunity for President Obama to take action and help turn around a humanitarian disaster.

International Herald Tribune—Tsvangirai urges Europe to increase food aid to Zimbabwe
Morgan Tsvangirai, the prime minister-designate of Zimbabwe, made an urgent appeal to European countries Tuesday to be generous with food aid to alleviate increasingly critical food shortages in his country. Tsvangirai, who remains Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader and entered a fragile power-sharing agreement with President Robert Mugabe in September, said food agencies needed $200 million dollars to feed more than 500 million people through January. He blamed Mugabe’s rule for the shortages.

Financial Times—Red Cross looks at cost-cutting round
The world’s biggest humanitarian organization, the Red Cross, is considering cutting staff and shelving projects as it braces itself for the slashing of aid contributions by recession-hit donors. As the organization launched an appeal for more funding, it warned of greater social unrest in poor countries as high food prices were compounded by slowing economic growth, job losses and falling revenues from the commodities and remittances on which they depend.

-Steve Wilson