Punjab-based farmers, who are known for feeding the country, now want to try their hands offshore, with a group of progressive farmers all set to acquire 50,000 hectares of farm land on lease in Ethiopia for growing high-value cash crops, including pulses and maize.

The election commission in Guinea has proposed 10 October as the revised date for the presidential election run-off. The poll was due last Sunday, but was postponed following violent clashes between rival supporters. The new date must be approved by the head of Guinea's military government, Gen Sekouba Konate. He has said that he does not want any further delays.

A controversial Ugandan hydropower project is making its second application for approval under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), drawing criticism from an environmental NGO. California-based International Rivers says the 250MW Bujagali dam project on the Victoria Nile river in Uganda should not be eligible for the CDM and would have gone ahead regardless of approval under the UN mechanism.

With only five years remaining until governments are to meet the targets set out by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the sub-Saharan Africa region continues to have the highest poverty rates in the world, with millions of people living on less than US$1 per day. Certain countries, like Ghana, Cameroon and Uganda have shown great progress towards decreasing poverty levels, while the rest of the region continues to lag behind on the 2015 deliverables.

As we mark 50 years of the decolonisation process in our continent, we note the wide diversity of experiences, of popular and democratic advances, of partial gains, of stagnation and even, in many cases, of grave setbacks and the heavy oppression of progressive forces. Everywhere in our continent the struggle for the legitimate democratic, social and economic aspirations of our peoples continues.

At least 20 people have been killed and 70 others injured in a series of street battles in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, sources say. Shells fired by African Union (AU) peacekeepers hit Bakara market, in central Mogadishu, during Thursday's fighting, Al Jazeera has learned.

South Africa is to resume the deportation of Zimbabweans on 1 January 2011, on the basis that conditions in their home country have improved sufficiently, while those with valid documents will be issued with permits to stay. This is a welcome promise, activists say, but hard to implement and irrelevant to most expatriates.

As leaders gather this week at the United Nations to discuss the challenges and opportunities to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, Mashable, 92nd Street Y and the UN Foundation brought speakers together at the Social Good Summit on Monday to present new and innovative ideas that bring the MDGs, technology and humanity together.

Hailing the move by several countries to ban the use of child soldiers, a top United Nations official has urged that all nations that have not yet done so take the important step of signing and ratifying the global treaty that serves to protect children in armed conflict. 'Today is a landmark day for children,' Radhika Coomaraswamy, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, said after three countries either signed or ratified the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict.

Chinese investment in Angola is bringing back to life one of the greatest rail routes in Africa, the Benguela Railway. In return, China gets oil - but how fair are accusations that China is engaged in a colonial-style scramble for resources?

The objective of this topic is to enable research on common challenges that are relevant to all sub-Saharan African countries and that could be met more effectively by them collectively rather than individually. In order to meet this objective, the research should be multidisciplinary oriented, including the humanities, use and integrate quantitative and qualitative methodologies, develop forward looking approaches when relevant and create knowledge platforms to ensure exchange and transfer of knowledge within Africa and with Europe.

Leaving your children behind in your home country is by no means easy, but more and more people are moving to crossing our borders in the hope of making a better living. Zoopy TV's newsteam spent a day with Belinda, a Zimbabwean who now works as a domestic worker in South Africa.

A pilot project using 'early warning indicators' (EWIs) to minimise antiretroviral (ART) resistance in Namibia has provided further evidence of the potential value of this strategy in settings where routine viral load monitoring is not feasible. With more than four million people in the developing world now receiving antiretroviral therapy, but few of those people able to access the relatively costly laboratory tests that are a standard component of HIV medical care in wealthy countries, there is ongoing concern that high rates of undetected treatment failure could cause widespread drug resistance.

Cheating, mistresses and having more than one partner might sound very sexy and intriguing. But beneath the surface lies a dangerous web of sexual partners which is leading to the rampant spread of HIV/AIDS. This documentary which was aired on e-tv's 3rd Degree in South Africa, engages with a group of HIV+ individuals who all contracted the disease by having sexual relations with more than one person at a time, examines why they did so, and how they hope to educate others to not follow in their footsteps.

'President [Robert] Mugabe [leader of ZANU-PF] and Prime Minister [Morgan] Tsvangirai [leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)] must apologise to me because I was beaten on the head and all over the body by ZANU-PF militia and sustained a broken leg. My daughter-in-law, who was pregnant, and my six-year-old grandson were locked in a house which was then set on fire.' - Juliet Mashoko, a 61-year-old grandmother, attended the recent Survivors Summit in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, organised by Heal Zimbabwe.

Hectic lives, jam-packed schedules and the all-too-common feeling of powerlessness can keep us from doing what we can to make a difference — even if that difference is simply offering a donation. Social media and the social good movement has revolutionized and re-energized fundraising, with mobile apps making it easier than ever before to do what you can to help others. And it can be surprisingly simple. Knowing that your ability to help others is but a tap away should be motivation enough for you to download these apps and start pitching in.

The election commission in Guinea has proposed 10 October as the revised date for the presidential election run-off. The poll was due last Sunday, but was postponed following violent clashes between rival supporters. The new date must be approved by the head of Guinea's military government, Gen Sekouba Konate.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has called for universal testing and treatment for HIV to help combat the pandemic, the local media reported.The state-owned Herald newspaper quoted the veteran leader, who is attending the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York, as saying HIV should be treated the same way as diseases such as smallpox where nations vaccinated their entire citizens against it.

If you had any doubts about where the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is really placing its bets, AGRA Watch’s recent announcement of the Foundation’s investment of $23.1million in 500,000 shares of Monsanto stock should put them to rest. Genetic engineering: full speed ahead.

Research published in 'Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences' finds virtually no correlation between climate-change indicators such as temperature and rainfall variability and the frequency of civil wars over the past 50 years in sub-Saharan Africa, reports Nature News. The analysis challenges a study published last year.