Does China have a geoeconomic strategy towards Zimbabwe? The case of the Zimbabwean natural resource sector

The Chinese party-state and Chinese companies have become increasingly active in Sub-Saharan Africa, especially in the natural resource sector. Accessing natural resources is assumed to be one of the main goals of both the Chinese government and relevant Chinese companies in resource-rich African countries. In the article, the interplay between Chinese party-state and state-owned enterprises in Zimbabwe is analyzed from the viewpoint of China’s geoeconomic strategy. While existing literature has focused on various facets of China’s Africa policy, details of collaboration between Chinese party-state and corporate actors remain largely unexamined. In the natural resource sector, such collaboration ranges from negotiating access to natural resources to arranging large Chinese-financed projects repaid or collateralized in natural resources. The article analyzes in detail the cases of three companies that have been involved in such arrangements in Zimbabwe’s natural resource sector between 2000 and 2013: NORINCO, AFECC, and CMEC. The central argument advanced in the article is that China’s Ministry of Commerce, Eximbank and CDB have pressured the Zimbabwean government to offer resources as collateral for further Chinese loans, in particular in the mid-2000's. The article concludes that while a geoeconomic strategy seems to be in place, its implementation is hindered by the great variety of actors involved.     

Does Professional or Social Network Support Meet the Needs of Victimized and Polyvictimized Youths in Sweden?

The authors use survey data on 2,160 young victims of crime and/or abuse in Sweden to examine whether professional psychosocial and/or social network support meets their needs. The results show that the likelihood of having sought and/or received professional psychosocial support increases with being a victim of more types of crime and/or abuse, as does the likelihood of experiencing anxiety and/or posttraumatic stress.     

What happens in freezing bodies? Experimental study of histological tissue change caused by freezing injuries.

In order to evaluate histological features of freezing damages to human tissue after death, we froze samples of liver and heart tissue to temperatures of -12 degrees C, -28 degrees C and -80 degrees C, and stored them for 24 and 72 h, respectively, at those temperatures. After thawing and routine preparation for histology, the samples were evaluated both by microscope and with an electronic image analyzer. In all cases, we found extended extracellular spaces and shrunken cells resulting from the freeze-thaw cycle. These features were more pronounced in tissues stored for longer durations. Such findings seem to be typical of tissue that has been frozen prior to examination. Two cases of dead bodies found outdoors at subzero temperatures demonstrate that formerly frozen and unfrozen tissues can be distinguished histologically. The findings are examined in relation to the fundamental laws of cryobiology.     

Juvenile Justice and the 'Shift to the Left'

The notion of 'shift' is used as a symbol for procedure in criminal cases, understood as a sequence of legal interferences by the police, the prosecution and by proceedings in court. If this sequence is symbolised by a horizontal line, the procedural stages move from left to right. But the distribution of competences has recently lost its prior balance, due to 'modern' crime and society: The functions of the judge appear reduced, whereas the range of action of the prosecution has widened; also the police has gained more influence. On the symbolic line of procedural stages this all makes for a 'shift to the left'. This paper deals with the question as to whether juvenile justice is undergoing the same changes. The first answer is 'yes', based on the enlarged diversionary competence of prosecutors and the police. From a different perspective, however, juvenile offending is a 'natural' phenomenon connected with young age, which a priori places juvenile justice on a 'left' position of the imagined line. A plea is made for this juvenile justice to stick to its inherent concern for young offenders individually and not to sacrifice this to collective interests in public order and safety.