A blogger from Jilin province came across this shocking image on display outside a shopping centre in the town of Changchun. Discrimination plain and clear? Oh no, says the mall. Read their excuses...

China's involvement in African affairs has grown considerably since the 1990s. An indication of Beijing's influence in the continent, the first ever daily newspaper in Chinese has arrived in Botswana. Read more...

Authorities in China's Gongan county in the central Hubei province have found a simple method of giving a boost to local cigarette producers — ordering all civil servants to meet "smoking targets" or face a fine. Read more...

The anti-capitalist World Social Forum is in its ninth year. But while this year's event, held in Belem, has attracted an impressive 100,000 people, the crowds aren't as large as in 2005, when participants in Porto Alegré, Brazil, numbered 155,000. One of our Observers, who attended both forums, compares the two. Read more...

The ninth World Social Forum, in Belem, north Brazil, has attracted a massive 100,000 leftist activists this year. One of them is Stéphane Le Borgne, a French entrepreneur who runs a fair trade business. He tells us what's going on. Read more and see his photos...

Tens of demonstrators gathered outside a Starbucks café in Beirut on Tuesday, accusing the American coffee chain of ‘financing Zionism’ and for being in part responsible for what’s happening in Gaza. Yara Harakeh tells us why she chose to demonstrate. Read more and see photos of the demo below...

With counterfeit brands all the rage in China, children might be surprised to unwrap "Adadas" or "IVIKE" trainers on Christmas day this year. Faced with tougher laws, fakers have given up on producing exact replicas and moved on to innovative ways to reproduce brand names. Read more...

An Australian company has just signed a deal with major Chinese cargo company COSCO to provide tankers powered by sails that are fuelled by sunlight. Read more...

France's biggest annual art fair, Fiac came to an end on Sunday. In the midst of the financial crisis, you might expect a little more thrift than usual. Not so. Read more and see photos sold pieces.

Two weeks ago we published a post about the Internet-driven campaign in South Korea to boycott American beef imports because of fears of mad cow disease. Protests have since escalated in Seoul, where 60,000 demonstrators clashed with police at the weekend. Read more...