14 October will see the launch of the book 'The Agrarian Question in the Neoliberal Era: Primitive
Accumulation and the Peasantry'. The launch forms part of a day-long event taking place at Nyerere theatre one at the University of Dar es Salaam, which will see top academics discussing the theme of the book. Click on the link provided to access the full programme.

The counterfeit medicine business is a big business in Ghana. Experts say only 60 per cent of anti-malarial medicines in the country are genuine; the remaining 40 per cent are fake. As a result hundreds of people are dying yearly. But the institutions charged with the responsibility of dealing with the problem appear not to have the capacity to end it. This documentary investigates the counterfeit medicine business and reveals the business doesn’t look like ending now.

At least 24 people have been killed and scores more injured in clashes between mostly Coptic demonstrators and military police outside the state television building in central Cairo. Essam Sharaf, Egypt's interim prime minister, called for a calm early on Monday morning as a curfew was imposed in central areas of the capital, including Tahrir Square. Egypt's leadership also held an emergency meeting late on Sunday to discuss the situation, with clashes also reported in Alexandria, Egypt's second city.

This article from Project Syndicate looks at Egypt’s public finances. 'The interest that the country pays on its foreign loans is larger than its budget for education, healthcare, and housing combined. Indeed, these debt-service costs alone account for 22% of the Egyptian government’s total expenditures. The impact has become impossible to ignore. With growing political uncertainty and a slowing economy, Egypt is likely to witness decreasing government revenues, increasing demands for urgent spending, and rising interest rates on government borrowing. This could lead to a fiscal catastrophe for the government at the very moment when the country is attempting a complicated political transition.'

Visit this Facebook page to find out more about the ecological Internet campaign against the hubris that humans can or should geoengineer our shared biosphere.

Malawi has said there is no reason to apologise to newly-elected President of Zambia Michael Sata over his deportation and declaration as a prohibited immigrant in 2007. Seventy-four-year Sata, elected President two weeks ago after beating a Mutharika-ally Rupiah Banda, on Saturday snubbed the Malawian leader’s invitation to attend the Comesa summit in protest against the Mutharika government and demanded for an apology concerning the 2007 quarrel.

Food prices are likely to become more volatile in coming years, increasing the risk that more poor people in import-dependent countries will go hungry, the United Nations said in an annual report on food insecurity published on Monday. Global food price indices hit record highs in February and were a factor in the Arab Spring of unrest in north Africa and the Middle East. Prices have since eased but the UN report said economic uncertainty, low cereal reserves, closer links between energy and agriculture markets and rising risks of weather shocks were likely to cause more dramatic price swings in the future.

After years of living in fear of showing her ID or driving licence to anyone, a transgender Durban woman can now proudly display her documents without being embarrassed or harassed. Her physical journey to womanhood started two years ago when she began hormone treatment and since then she has developed breasts, her facial hair has diminished and her weight has gone down by almost 30kg because the increase in oestrogen has led to a decrease in muscle mass. The task of changing her gender officially was much more difficult. Home Affairs said that since she had not undergone any gender reassignment surgery, her journey to womanhood was incomplete and her details could not be changed.

Evicted from their homes in 2009 when the government initiated efforts to restore Kenya's largest water tower, the Mau Forest Complex, thousands of the affected families are still without permanent shelter. The fact that the country's policy on internally displaced persons (IDPs) has remained in draft form since 2009 does not give the evictees hope that their plight will be resolved soon.

IRIN News carries a feature on Moulid Iftin Hujale, who has spent 14 of his 24 years in the world’s largest refugee complex, Dadaab, in eastern Kenya, close to his home country, Somalia. As well as working with an NGO in the complex’s Ifo camp, Hujale is a writer and freelance journalist. In this installment of his account of life in Dadaab, he reflects further on the quotidian reality of camp life and the tantalizing opportunity of escape offered by a scholarship.

This documentary investigates the alleged sexual exploitation of female students in some of Ghana’s schools, especially the tertiary institutions. In this piece, former students talk about how their lecturers pestered them for sex in exchange for grades. For some of the victims the experience has completely changed their outlook on life.

The Zimbabwe Election Support Network sent a 15 member mission to observe Zambia‘s tripartite elections held on the 20th of September 2011. The objectives of the mission were multifaceted and included; to observe the Zambia’s electoral processes, to explore and understand civil society initiatives within and around the electoral process. Lastly, the mission sought to glean lessons and insights to inform Zimbabweans as we prepare for the referendum and the general elections in the future.

One in four people will require mental health care at some point in their lives but in many countries only two per cent of all health sector resources are invested in mental health services, according to the World Health Organisation's Mental Health Atlas 2011, released on the eve of the World Mental Health Day, celebrated worldwide on 10 October. 'Average global spending on mental health is still less than US$3 per capita per year,' said the Atlas, adding that 'In low income countries, expenditure can be as little as US$0.25 per person per year.'

The African Gender Institute (AGI) and the Women and Gender Studies programme of the University of the Western Cape will on the 11th and the 12th of October 2011, co-host Professor Sylvia Tamale. Professor Tamale will be launching the book, 'African Sexualities, A Reader' and also presenting a seminar on the politics of sexualities in African contexts. The book launch will be on the 11th of October at the Book Lounge (71 Roeland Street, Cape Town) from 17:30hrs to 20:00hrs while the seminar will be on the 12th of October at the Graduate School of Humanities Building at the University of Cape Town from 13:00hrs to 14:30hrs.

A firm call for African Union member states to impose sanctions against Morocco until it abides by the United Nations mandate that affirms the people of Western Sahara's right to self-determination was made at the Pan African Parliament proceedings. The Pan African Parliament (PAP), the legislative organ of the African Union (AU), is meeting from 3-14 October for the Fifth Ordinary Session of the Second Parliament in Midrand, South Africa. The call comes as PAP reviewed recommendations of a fact-finding mission to the region on Wednesday.

In this week's edition of the Emerging Powers News Round-Up, read a comprehensive list of news stories and opinion pieces related to China, India and other emerging powers...

Tanzania should encourage gender parity if it wants to have a competitive economy, a new World Bank report shows. In the report on women, business and the law, Tanzania is listed among 25 countries in sub-Saharan Africa with high levels of gender discrimination regarding the use of property and basic legal transactions such as signing contracts or getting a passport.

Reporters Without Borders visited Cameroon from 26 September to 2 October to assess the degree of media freedom during the campaign for the 9 October presidential election and to promote a series of reforms that are needed to improve media freedom, including a new media law and the decriminalization of press offences. 'The media's coverage of the campaign is trying to be balanced but the campaign itself is not,' Reporters Without Borders said. 'President Paul Biya, who is running for reelection, and the ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Rally (RDPC) are everywhere. Biya is the only candidate to be seen on campaign posters. The opposition is hardly managing to make its voice heard. Everyone agrees that there is little political debate and this is reflected in the media.'

A network of Pan-Africanists from Ubuntu Pan African Network and Pan Africanist Unity groups are initiating an invitation to Cynthia McKinney to serve as the African World Envoy starting 28 October 2011. It has been recognized that Cynthia McKinney, a former US Representative and 2008 Presidential Election Candidate, has contributed her voice and her life to justice and WORLD peace. She is a long time proponent of abolishing NATO and a tireless voice against the genocidal exploitation of humans and the environment by multinational companies and the West.

There has been an increase in the number of cholera cases and deaths in parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo where an outbreak has been ongoing since March, say humanitarian agencies. At least 6,910 cases and 384 deaths had been reported as of 3 October, according to a report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), compared with a total of 3,896 cases and some 265 deaths by 20 July 2011.