Britain announced Tuesday that it will cut off direct aid to South Africa in 2015, citing its status as Africa's biggest economy. London currently gives £19 million ($29 million, 22 million euros) of bilateral aid a year to Pretoria, down from a peak of more than £40 million in 2003. Britain said its relationship with South Africa should now be based on trade rather than aid following its transition from apartheid to a "flourishing democracy".

Football's world governing body FIFA on Tuesday said that the number of international transfers showed a slight increase last year, with Brazil the most active player in the global market. In all, 11,552 transfers were completed in the 12 months to December 31 last year, an increase of one percent on 2011. But although transfer traffic, increased, the actual total transfer turnover of $2.53 billion (£1.84 billion, $2.16 billion) fell 10 percent on the previous year's total of $2.82 billion.

The foreign aid flow to Bangladesh was much better during the first eight months (July-Feb) period of the current fiscal (2012-13) as it totalled $ 1,577.07 million against $ 1,196.59 million during the corresponding period last year.The commitment for the July-February period was, however, a bit lower as it was $ 3,724.74 million compared to $ 4,021.54 million during the same period last year, said an official at the Economic Relations Division (ERD).During the eight-month period of the current fiscal, Bangladesh made a repayment of $ 802.87 million, including $ 658.43 milli

Rich countries applying budget austerity cut their aid to developing countries by 4.0 percent last year, the OECD said on Wednesday, with the poorest countries taking the brunt of the cutbacks. Development aid from the OECD's 34 member countries has dropped 6.0 percent in real terms since reaching a peak in 2010 and it is the first time since 1996-97 that aid has contracted for two consecutive years. In 2012, OECD members provided $125.7 billion in net official development assistance, representing 0.29 percent of their combined gross national income.