TRADE-AFRICA: Debate Over WTO Leadership in the Final Stretch

As the final round of consultations to choose a new director-general for the World Trade Organisation (WTO) wrapped up Thursday, former European Union Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy appeared to be leading in the race to head the body.

RIGHTS-SOUTHERN AFRICA: Truckers Contribute to the Spread of AIDS

For years, health surveys in the wake of southern Africa's AIDS pandemic have shown that itinerate occupations like truck drivers and seasonal agricultural workers pose a greater risk for workers of contracting and spreading HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

INT’L LABOUR DAY-CHILE: Tackling the Challenge of AIDS

Chile's Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT) trade union federation has launched a campaign aimed at the prevention of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, based on the philosophy that the labour movement should also take on emerging challenges, such as awareness-raising and education on health issues.

HEALTH: AIDS Wears a Woman’s Face, Especially in Africa

Stephen Lewis, the U.N. Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, invariably returns to New York with half a dozen harrowing stories of death and devastation in a continent ravaged by the spreading disease.

DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: All Aboard the ‘Johannesburg to G8’ Bus

Calls for debt relief to be awarded to African countries have become "de rigueur" in non-governmental circles and a good many news publications. But does the matter crop up during dinner conversations across the continent? Is it sufficiently important to crowd out sports talk amongst people riding mini-bus taxis on their way to work?

HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: No Simple Path for ARV Delivery

Bonisiwe Maphumulo sits on a straight-backed chair in the sun outside her thatched, one-room home in rural Msinga. What she says next is, most probably, a lie.

DEVELOPMENT: A Subsidy North and South Can Agree On?

The United Nations, which aggressively campaigns for the elimination of some 300 billion dollars in annual subsidies doled out to Western farmers, claims that unfair agricultural tariffs are killing the livelihoods of farmers in the world's poorer nations.

HEALTH-KENYA: From Bangkok, They Brought Hope for Millions Living With AIDS

Smoke from open fires roasting slabs of meat and maize cobs rises alongside a rutted, dusty road in Kangemi, a slum north-west of Kenya's capital Nairobi.

HEALTH-SOUTHERN AFRICA: Teenage Suicides on Upswing

Passions of the heart rather than financial woes account for a growing number of suicides in Southern African nations as diverse as prosperous and well-developed South African and small, traditional Swaziland.

HIV/AIDS-VIETNAM: Draft Law to Force Disclosure to Spouses Comes Under Fire

A draft law that will force people living with HIV/AIDS to inform their spouses of their health status is under fire from community health workers who claim the proposed legislation is unrealistic and ignores present realities in Vietnam.

HEALTH: The Best Defence against AIDS, In the Long Run, Will Be Economic

If one wants to find out how AIDS is increasing hunger and malnutrition, one can expect to harvest an abundance of depressing information. But soon, this may change.

/CORRECTED REPEAT*/HEALTH-ZIMBABWE: Only a Few Can Afford Life-prolonging AIDS Drugs

Emily Muronda, 55, spent seven months in hospital in 2003. She had been down with AIDS-related complications, which saw her in and out of the hospital, that year. Muronda's ailments included tuberculosis, severe vaginal thrush and pneumonia.

RIGHTS: Help Is On the Way to Assist Swaziland’s Elderly Financially

Gogo (granny) Dube, a small but spry white-haired woman of 67, has had to raise five grandchildren since her daughter and son-in-law, the children's parents, died of AIDS-related illnesses within months of each other in 2000.

HEALTH-MOZAMBIQUE: More Policies Needed to Help Farmers Affected By AIDS

Lying outside her hut on a tattered mat, 20-year-old Maria struggled with her breathing as she tried to explain why she and her five orphaned nieces and nephews in her charge had not eaten.

HEALTH: Russia Counts the Cost of AIDS

The Russian government is turning increasingly towards businesses to support its fight against AIDS.

WORLD HEALTH DAY: There’s Nothing Natural About These Deaths

Although pregnancy-related complications kill 500,000 women each year, and nearly 11 million children never reach their fifth birthday, U.N. experts say this largely preventable tragedy is just not a high enough priority for many governments or the international community.

CULTURE-UGANDA: Muslims Demand Changes in Bill on Women’s Rights

Members of Uganda's minority Muslim community have criticised their country's domestic relations bill, saying it goes against the teachings of Islam.

WORLD HEALTH DAY: Orthodox ABC Strategy Falls Short in AIDS Fight

More resources are being poured into campaigns against HIV/AIDS than ever before, even as an unprecedented number of advocates demand new treatment and prevention strategies to address the skyrocketing number of women becoming infected with the virus.

POPE JOHN PAUL II: Paying Respects, But Also Hoping for a Miracle

Reform-minded Catholic groups in the United States are praying the successor to John Paul II will prove more receptive to softening church doctrine on contraception, abortion, homosexuality and women's equality, although they acknowledge that these issues are probably not high on the Vatican agenda.

HEALTH-AFRICA: Thou Shalt Not Condomise

Muslims and Catholics do not see eye-to-eye on many issues. But when it comes to practices which they fear will allow the encroachment of unacceptable secular values - abortion, gay marriage and condom use - they quickly close ranks to form a united front against the threat.

ARTS-ZIMBABWE: Secrets and Silence Around AIDS

As AIDS affects a growing number of women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa, a timely novel has been released by first time Zimbabwean author Lutanga Shaba which tackles the factors underpinning women’s vulnerability to HIV.