An array of young musicians from Colombia, Brazil, India, Zimbabwe, the U.S. and 12 other countries across the world are descending in the Bay Area this weekend in a free festival that celebrates unique sounds and collaborations.

The seminar, to be held on Monday, is organised by the Spanish Permanent Mission to the United Nations together with Casa África, Spain’s main public diplomacy institution dedicated to the African continent, and Real Instituto Elcano, one of the most prestigious think-tanks. It will be attended ambassadors accredited to the UN and business executives from the United States and Spain.

A group of 12 Zambians and Zimbabweans will be in the United States as part of the Business and Entrepreneurship Exchange Programme. They were selected from a competitive pool with over 300 applications received from interested entrepreneurs. Their placements are in the states of North Carolina and Colorado. In addition, eight American participants will be selected to participate in a two-week reciprocal program to Zambia and Zimbabwe in early 2015.

Donations for communities affected by "Yolanda" continue to pour in, three months after the super typhoon hit the central Philippines. The African Diplomatic Corps in Tokyo handed over to Philippine Ambassador to Japan Manuel M. Lopez the collective donation of the ADC and the Association of the Wives of African Ambassadors for victims of "Yolanda".

Zimbabwe’s ambassador to Australia has asked the Australian government for asylum, saying she fears for her safety and believes Zimbabwe President Mugabe’s government is “illegitimate”. Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe since independence from British rule in 1980, won a disputed election in July amid allegations by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai of widespread rigging and fraud. Mugabe denies the accusations.

The formula has worked in California, Florida and Paris. Now officials in Zimbabwe, eager to rebrand a country notorious for economic collapse and political violence, want to build a "Disneyland in Africa". Walter Mzembi, the tourism and hospitality minister, told New Ziana, the official news agency, that the government was planning a $300m (£193m) theme park near Victoria Falls, the country's top tourist attraction.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has threatened to retaliate against companies from Britain and the United States if the two Western powers persist with sanctions that he described as "harassment." Mugabe's comments on Sunday follow scrutiny from outside observers of his re-election in a July vote that rival Morgan Tsvangirai denounced as a "coup by ballot" which involved alleged widespread vote-rigging.

With my pen and a notebook, I was trying to take on Zimbabwe: the country in southern Africa I call home and maintain a fierce love-hate relationship with. Indeed, there was a feeling that day of writing to an aloof and self-satisfied lover, whose transgressions one has been cataloguing in silence, waiting for an opening to iron things out. But instead of finding new things to rant about, novel problems to propose solutions to, I found myself confronted by the sameness and repetitiveness that characterizes Zimbabwe’s politics.