RIGHTS-MOZAMBIQUE: Law to Stop Human Trafficking

Over 1,000 Mozambicans, including children, are trafficked to South Africa every year where they are forced into prostitution or to provide free or cheap labour. In response, Mozambique’s government last week approved a new law which will make human trafficking a crime punishable with long prison sentences.

MOZAMBIQUE: Agriculture Input Fairs – A Chance to "Live in Dignity"

Despite a chain of misfortunes, 75-year-old Gonçalves Mandlate faithfully works his plot soon after sunrise each day, hoping that his life, and those of the five grandchildren who live with him, will improve.

BULGARIA: Release of Medics Leaves Larger Issues Hanging

The release of six Bulgarian medics detained in Libya for eight years seems to have led to a sudden "normalisation of ties" between Libya and the European Union.

HEALTH: ‘Protect Our Future’ – AIDS Drugs Needed for Children

The 4th International AIDS Society (IAS) Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention concluded here Wednesday with a call for antiretroviral drugs developed specifically for HIV-infected children.

HEALTH: HIV/AIDS Experts Swear by Circumcision

Male circumcision could prevent millions of new HIV infections a year, delegates at the 4th International AIDS Society (IAS) Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention were told here on Tuesday.

HEALTH-AUSTRALIA: Focus on Drug Access at HIV/AIDS Meet

Delegates at a major international conference on HIV and AIDS, set to unfold here on Sunday, are expected to urge the developed countries to help guarantee the supply of affordable drugs to combat the virus and the syndrome.

HEALTH-ZIMBABWE: Running Errands of Mercy in the Age of AIDS

Priscilla Ndlovu feels like she has seen it all. She works as a member of one of myriad community home-based care groups, the prevalence of which shows the extent of HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe, highlighting the country’s struggle to control the pandemic.

HEALTH-AUSTRALIA: &#39Earmark More HIV/AIDS Funds for Research&#39

Organisers of the fourth International AIDS Society (IAS) conference have called for donors to set aside 10 percent of funding for HIV prevention, treatment and care to research.

WORLD POPULATION DAY: Enlightened Men Prescribed for Maternal Health

What is a common factor in ensuring that women do not marry too young, do not have more children than they can cope with, do not die giving birth - and contract HIV in smaller numbers? Men.

Q&A: Science Ignores AIDS in Women, Says Nobel Nominee

Science has yet to provide rigorous studies of how HIV/AIDS or the impacts of antiretroviral medications affect women's bodies in particular, Argentine activist Patricia Pérez, nominated for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, told Tierramérica.

FINANCE: Development Banks Lag on Sexual Health – Report

Despite strong verbal commitments to reproductive and sexual health, the so-called multilateral development banks (MDBs) that lend to poor nations have spent relatively little money on such projects and, in some cases, have followed policies on the ground that in fact impeded women's empowerment and improved public health, a new study charges.

HEALTH: Focus on Orphans, Stigma at HIV/AIDS Meet

Having won over conservative communities in three Sri Lankan districts, an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) is confident that the problem of stigma and discrimination faced by people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) can be overcome.

HEALTH-EL SALVADOR: Free AIDS Testing, But Then What?

While health authorities in El Salvador have launched a campaign under the slogan "Take the test: positive or negative, we are all human beings in the face of AIDS", people living with HIV complain of a lack of medicines and of discrimination, even at the hands of public health doctors.

DEVELOPMENT-MOZAMBIQUE: An MDG Temperature Check Gives Mixed Results

Only about 30 percent of Mozambicans think that their quality of life has improved since 2000, the year when the international community agreed on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), while about 42 percent believe life has not changed.

SOUTH AMERICA: AIDS Meds for All, But at Higher Prices

In under a decade, programmes providing universal free access to antiretroviral medicines have greatly decreased AIDS mortality in countries like Argentina and Brazil, but this progress is now threatened by the rising prices of new formulas patented by the big pharmaceutical companies.

AFRICA: “If You Want More Development, Include Women in Decision-making”

The '8th Triennial Commonwealth Women's Affairs Ministers Meeting' (8WAMM) has closed with an acknowledgement that gender equality is central to democracy, peace and economic growth; ministers also called for greater efforts to achieve parity between men and women.

HEALTH: Commonwealth Event Debates Why AIDS Wears “the Face of a Woman”

The issue of women continuing to be at higher risk of HIV infection than men has received considerable attention at a gathering of women's affairs ministers from Commonwealth countries underway in Uganda's capital, Kampala.

G8-AFRICA: Shortfall on Help in AIDS Fight ‘Devastating’

Although the Group of Eight industrialised nations agreed at their summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, to allocate 60 billion dollars to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in Africa, health activists say the treatment targets are much lower than originally pledged, which is "devastating news", especially for the millions of people with HIV/AIDS.

G8: Much Talk, Too Few Results

This year's summit of the G8 heads of government will likely be remembered as a "how not to" organise such an event, for the contrast between the expectations it raised and its negligible accomplishments, and for its enormous security costs.

G8: Health Over Intellectual Property Rights, Says G5

The Group of Eight industrialised countries suffered a setback Friday in its plan to strengthen intellectual property rights through "promoting innovation - protecting innovation" when the five developing world's leaders - China, India, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico - forced a key change in the final statement.

G8: Summit Falls Short on Africa Aid, Hedge Fund Regulation

The Group of Eight industrialised countries (G8) agreed to allocate 60 billion dollars in new aid to Africa in "the coming years", to beef up the fight against HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, and to improve primary education across the continent.