An international Monetary Fund team arrives in Zimbabwe today to assess the state of the economy under its Article IV consultation mission, ahead of the country's national budget next month. The IMF's visit is, however, likely to cause serious political tensions in the divided inclusive government as Mugabe and his ministers remain at least sceptical, and at most hostile, and opposed to the international fund's involvement in the Zimbabwean economy.

Angola has deported nearly 200 Congolese citizens, according to humanitarian reports, prompting fears of a new wave of mass expulsions that saw tens of thousands displaced last year. Angola and Democratic Republic of Congo were allies during the latter's 1998-2003 war, but relations have been strained in recent years due to rows over border demarcation and oil rights.

Zimbabwe’s civil society has urged Southern African leaders to ensure the country’s next elections comply with regional benchmarks for democratic polls requiring an independent body to run polls and that the military not to interfere with voting. In submissions to South African President Jacob Zuma - the regional SADC bloc’s official mediator in Zimbabwe - the groups said President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s coalition government has failed to end tensions in Zimbabwe and that the country’s political environment remains 'poisoned with violence, intimidation and fear'.

New evidence that speculation on food by hedge funds, pension funds and investment banks is fuelling the rise of bread and other basic foods has been released by anti-poverty campaigners on World Food Day, October 16, 2010. The World Development Movement has calculated that over the summer, financial speculators in Chicago alone bought up corn futures contracts equivalent to nearly 1.7 billion bushels - more than the annual consumption of Brazil, a country of some 260 million people and the world’s third largest consumer of corn.

Zimbabwe’s debt burden of about 8,3 billion dollars, owed to internal and external institutions, is crowding out essential national budget items such as health and basic services, with detrimental effects for particularly women. Indications are that many Zimbabwean women opt to give birth at home, with some children being born HIV positive because their mothers cannot afford the maternity fees or the fees charged at hospitals and clinics for the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV, according to the Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (ZIMCODD).

Shunned by mainstream society, sex workers with HIV-related illnesses in Nairobi are unlikely to receive help from concerned neighbours. Instead, some of them are being cared for by fellow sex workers. A group of 25 sex workers who call themselves 'Knight Nurses', have been active for a little over a year in the slum of Huruma. They regularly visit fellow members of the group and their family members who are HIV-positive and bedridden to cook for them, wash them and tidy their homes.

Miners work at the physical edges of our consumer society, writes Peter Bosshard from International Rivers, in this Huffington Post article. 'Like the canary in the mine shaft, they are sentinels for the triumph, toil and tragedy of the global economic system. Only days after the miraculous rescue of the Chilean miners, Chinese supervisors shot and wounded 11 workers in a coal mine in Zambia on 15 October. The labour conflict casts a dark shadow on the track record of Chinese overseas investors.'

Members of the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) and SA Municipal Workers' Union (Samwu) will march in Klerksdorp on Friday against corruption, Cosatu said. 'On October 22 the streets of Klerksdorp will be brought to a halt as Cosatu and Samwu members in the North West Province and other trade union activists from all over the country sing and toyi-toyi to expose rampant corruption,' said Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven in a statement on Tuesday.

If all you ever read about gay people in Africa is in the western media (including gay media), you would be forgiven for thinking it's one endless horror story. Largely unnoticed amid all that has been the quickening development of gay communities and movements in many parts of Africa. In Kenya, for instance, David Kuria - a gay man - is standing for the senate. If elected, he'll be the second openly gay politician in Africa.

State-owned trading firm MMTC Ltd, the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (Iffco) and the conglomerate Bharti Enterprises plan to join the growing number of Indian entities engaged in commercial farming in Africa. Cheap land and labour costs in Africa are attracting a number of Indian firms with interest in agriculture. A large number of people in East African countries such as Kenya work in the cultivation of tea, coffee, corn, vegetables, sugarcane, wheat and fruits, among other things.

The media sector has been buzzing with speculation about the reasons why five senior editorial staff at the New Age newspaper simultaneously quit their jobs on Tuesday, a day before the paper was due to launch. Though derided by some as the mouthpiece of the ANC and praised by others as a chance to bring diversity to the media landscape, readers from all quarters have been awaiting the launch of the New Age with great anticipation.

A United Nations agency has suspended plans to grant a prize sponsored by Equatorial Guinea President Teodor Obiang Nguema after lobbying by human rights groups. Obiang is accused of rights abuses, rigging elections and corruption. He has previously denied such charges.

The Pan-African Parliament (PAP) has adopted recommendations for an action plan to coordinate with regional and national parliaments to ensure African parliamentary budget support for implementation of the July 2010 African Union Summit Declaration on Maternal, Infant and Child Health and Development in Africa; the AU Summit Decision for the Eradication of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV/AIDS; and the September 2010 commitments by African governments at the recent UN MDG 10th year review summit.

The Conference of the Democratic Left in the Western Cape reiterates its support for the period of action called in October by Abahlali baseMjondolo in the Western Cape in protest at the lack of housing and service delivery. In contrast to others, we regard the tactic of direct action and civil disobedience as legitimate forms of protest under a neo-liberal and pro-capitalist state.

Amnesty International has called on the Egyptian authorities to immediately release, or charge with a recognizable criminal offence, more than 70 members of the Muslim Brotherhood group arrested this week. More than 150 people have been arrested since the Muslim Brotherhood chairman, Mohamed Badie', said on 9 October that the group will put up candidates in Egypt's parliamentary elections, scheduled for 29 November.

Ibrahim Bello says he can earn $23 in two hours extracting gold from the ground, more than he can make in two months from cultivating millet. Such is the economic draw of the 'gold rush', with impoverished farmers digging up rocks by hand in open mines, that many are in denial about its devastating consequences. At least 400 children have died from poisoning caused by illegal gold mining since March because the ore being unearthed around their villages contains high concentrations of lead, contaminating the air, soil and water.

FIFA, the world's governing body for football, announced Wednesday that it has provisionally suspended two of its executive committee members who allegedly demanded money in return for their votes in the bidding process for the 2018 World Cup.

Tanzania will go to the polls on October 30, 2010 and the general election campaign is well underway. As the campaigns heat up, presidential candidates and other candidates fighting for parliamentary seats are using new media tools to communicate with potential voters. Along with campaign rallies, which target the majority of the population, a small number of politicians have started to use social media tools such as blogs, online videos, Facebook and twitter to create deeper engagement with voters.

Mugabe Inc. has once again, in anticipation of forthcoming elections, vigorously begun to engage in exploitation through 'primitive accumulation' of resources via war vets, corrupt corporate execs and political cronies, writes Khadija Sharife in this article for Harvard International Review. Prior to the discovery of diamonds, specifically in Marange the big kahuna was land. This time around, legal concessions to Marange have been voided, with two South African companies granted right of access via fraudulent licenses.