In June 2008, after ten years at our offices in Hackesche Höfe, the Heinrich Böll Foundation is about to move to its newly built headquarters at Schumannstraße 8 in Berlin-Mitte opposite the Deutsches Theater.

For more than one week South Africa has been shaken by violent attacks against migrants. According to the police, more than 40 deaths are already recorded. Hundreds of people - among them women and children - were attacked, injured, raped, and their homes were plundered and burned down.

Two journalists who participated in a media workshop in September/October 2005, organized by the Lebanese American University and supported by the Beirut office of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, were murdered within less than a year by gunmen in the Northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Both Sarwa Abdul-Wahab and Sahar Hussein Ali Al-Haydari were passionate journalists who lived and died to recount their country’s agonizing story.

Nigeria’s privatisation programme covers several sectors, including banking and finance, manufacturing, and tourism. Given the criticisms leveled at privatisation programmes in other sectors, it appears timely to evaluate the proposals for the privatisation of the utility sector.

The uncertainty inherent in the motto for this conference, organised by the Heinrich Böll Foundation, was clearly shared by the participants on 25th April at the Berlin House of Representatives. At this conference on the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), researchers and EU politicians discussed why there has been so little progress towards its objective of creating a “circle of friendly nations”.

This dossier contains summaries of regional roundtable discussions and background information on international approaches to the crisis over the Iranian nuclear programme.

At the UN Climate Change Conference that took place in December 2007 in Bali a new phase of international climate negotiations began. The result: African countries will remain exempt from  emission reductions. Instead they were offered financial help to adapt to the impacts of climate change which pose an especially serious challenge to the countries of the South.