The ruling ANC will appoint two independent researchers to investigate the nationalisation of mines, its secretary general said on Monday. 'The NEC (national executive committee) has resolved to appoint two senior researchers and a project manager to investigate successful models that could be considered on the role of the state in mining,' Gwede Mantashe told reporters in Johannesburg.

About 800 South African commercial farmers have already signed land deals to expand production in Mozambique, ahead of a conference next week to discuss other possible opportunities in the Gaza province. South African farmers have received new land offers to grow crops in over 20 countries.

Ivorians preparing for a tense presidential run-off on 28 November are hoping the fragile peace of the first round on 7 November will hold, but fear it could easily crumble as cracks begin to emerge. Having been repeatedly postponed, the long-awaited elections have so far gone relatively smoothly. International observers have broadly praised the conduct of voters and political parties. Gbagbo took 38 per cent of the vote in the first round, with former prime minister Alassane Ouattara winning 32 per cent.

The exit of multinational British Petroleum from the Tanzania market faces stiff opposition from its workers who want to know their fate before any transfer of assets is made. According to sources in the petroleum sector, workers are up in arms accusing management of ignoring their pleas for a negotiated settlement.

Victims and other affected parties are working on a short deadline to engage with the process that could see up to 149 persons convicted of murder, robbery and theft, pardoned through Special Presidential Pardons. While the Department of Justice has published the names of 149 convicted persons who have been recommended for a presidential pardon, victims affected by these crimes have not been directly informed. The South African Coalition for Transitional Justice (SACTJ) has sought to make victims aware of the process and to inform them of how they can engage with the process to make sure that their voices are heard.

Cuba has announced plans to build biolarvicide factories in Brazil and several African countries in a bid to tackle malaria and dengue fever. Biolarvicides are biological products that are added to water to kill mosquitoes at the larval stage. Labiofam - the Cuban laboratory in charge of the project - has been producing two biolarvicides, Bactivec and Griselesf, since the 1990s.

President Ernest Bai Koroma has promised not less than 50,000 acres of land anywhere in the country to CHICASON group companies. The company would be involved in manufacturing, and mining oil and gas as part of its business expansion in Sierra Leone. 'My country is moving from a frontier state, I will give CHICASON not less than 50,000 acres of land anywhere in the country. I will serve as arbiter between the habitants and CHICASON. My government is supporting the private sector and Nigeria deserves our support,' he said.

After successfully protesting the Protection of Information Bill (the secrecy Bill) the Right2Know Campaign has emerged as a vibrant campaign with significant influence in the public discourse. This rapid growth has raised a number of questions and the R2K Working Groups have called for a National Dialogue amongst campaign supporters to deliberate on matters of the Campaign's scope, strategy, and structure.

The Fahamu Emerging Powers in Africa Programme is pleased to announce a call for applications for its Journalist Study Tour to India. Four successful applicants will be chosen to participate in a six day study tour. African media professionals in print, broadcast, radio and online fora throughout Africa are encouraged to apply for this study tour. African lecturers from journalism schools and media programmes on the continent may also apply.

More than 250 health care providers, advocates, parliamentarians, women’s groups, community members and allied agencies from across Africa are meeting in Accra, to share best practices and lessons and initiate an agenda for action. The four-day conference focuses on unsafe abortion as a critical issue for reproductive health and rights in Africa, and for achieving the Millennium Development Goal 5, to reduce maternal mortality.

Gender-based violence is a persistent human rights violation in South Africa, especially seeing girls and women of all ages continually enduring incidents of rape and assault. Official estimates that have been criticised as being overly conservative, put the number of women raped in South Africa at 27,750 a year, or three an hour. Last week, an 8th grade girl was allegedly gang raped by three schoolboys on the high school’s premises. The incident was allegedly filmed by students using mobile phones. Media Monitoring Africa says that numerous aspects of how this story has been reported have given cause for concern.

Other Worlds is working to document the ways that communities and social movements, together with their allies around the world, are working to build just economic, environmental, and political alternatives out of the ruins of the earthquake. You can read the ongoing reporting coming out of that work in the 'Another Haiti is Possible' archive on the Other Worlds website.

Western governments are rigging the market against poor cotton growers in Africa by pouring billions of pounds of taxpayers' money into farms in the United States and Europe, according to a new report. The US and EU have handed cotton farms subsidies of $32bn (£20bn) in the past decade, disadvantaging otherwise cheaper West African imports, according to the report by the Fairtrade Foundation.

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 'We are the World', United Support of Artists for Africa (USA for Africa) and Trust Africa sponsored, in collaboration with the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Africa Humanitarian Action, co-hosted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), a Symposium entitled 'Reflections on International Humanitarian Interventions in Africa' was held at the United Nations Conference Center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 21-23 September 2010. The stimulating discourse of the symposium, which included thinkers, practitioners and activists on the continent and beyond, was the driving motivation for AfricaSpeaks4Africa.org.

The US adult film industry was brought to a virtual standstill recently after an actor tested HIV-positive and all his sexual partners were tested for the virus. There are no such precautions in Kenya's porn industry, where actors usually perform without a condom or routine HIV testing. 'I don't know my HIV status and I can't say I know that of the men we act with,' said Angela*, who recently made the switch from eight years of street-based sex work to acting in local porn films.

Bangalore-based Indian company, Karuturi Global, the world’s largest flower producer, couldn’t get enough land in India to compete with rivals. So the company went to Ethiopia early this year and leased 1,200 square miles of land - larger than the State of Rhode Island - to grow flowers. After a few years, the land will become useless due to heavy use of fertilisers. Millions of Ethiopians are facing food shortage and yet the World Bank-financed dictatorship leases huge tracts of land to foreign agribusiness to grow and export flower, reports the Ethiopian Review.

South Africans are fearful that Johannesburg may soon be at the mercy of acid water, with whisperings of the CBD crumbling as basements flood and buildings corrode. The government is said to be too slow, gutless and corrupt to enforce necessary action, the mining companies too heartless and unwilling to pay, the community and environmental activists too alarmist and the solutions too expensive or ineffective. South Africa's Mail & Guardian newspaper is featuring a series on acid mine drainage, or AMD, in South Africa, with each week focusing on a different area.

The Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (IHRDA) and Human Rights Documentation Systems (HURIDOCS) launched a new online database of jurisprudence of the African Human Rights System on 8 November 2010.

For the second day running MDC-T Senators brought the Senate to a standstill in protest against the presence of 'intruders'. Immediately after the opening prayer MDC-T Senator Tichaona Mudzingwa rose to object to the presence of Thokozile Mathuthu, David Karimanzira, Jason Machaya and Faber Chidarikire in the House. (These are persons who the MDC-T say are no longer ex officio members of the Senate, as they were illegally and unconstitutionally appointed as provincial governors by President Mugabe.)

For the 10th anniversary of 1325, Peacewomen has launched the ‘Women, Peace and Security Handbook,’ which examines the degree to which the Security Council has internalised the thematic agenda of Women, peace and security in its geographic work over the past 10 years, specifically in the Council’s country-specific resolutions. Divided into thirteen thematic chapters, the handbook is a reference guide for both progress made and action to be taken on the Women, Peace and Security agenda.