As the rainy season begins in Mozambique, aid organisations and the government are still to complete contingency plans to help cope with the possible repeat of the flood disasters that have hit the country for two-years running.

International donors have pledged more than US $700 million in support of Mozambique's poverty reduction programme. A World Bank press release said 80 percent of the pledges were in the form of grants.

A cameraman with the Mozambican Television (TVM), Jose Arlindo, was seriously beaten up by armed security of the main opposition party in Mozambique, the Resistencia National Mocambicana (Renamo), in the northern city of Nampula on Thursday, November 1. Renamo was holding its IV Congress. One policeman and two unidentified civilians were also beaten up and three others were taken captive.

Exports from Mozal, the massive aluminium smelter on the outskirts of the capital, Maputo, accounted for over 60 percent of the country's total export earnings, according to central bank figures released on Thursday. The smelter, which is the country's the largest private investment, started production last June.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has granted US $11.5 million dollars to Mozambique for an anti-HIV/AIDS programme, AFP reported on Tuesday.