/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.

DEVELOPMENT-MALAWI: Bad Policies, Not Drought, Leave Millions Hungry

Around two million Malawians need food aid this year, the sixth year in a row that food shortages have hit the country, due to a prolonged drought affecting the greater part of Southern Africa.

POLITICS-ZIMBABWE: Popular Uprising Seems an Unlikely Course of Action

The landslide victory of Zimbabwe's ruling party in last week's parliamentary elections has strengthened the voice of those who have been arguing that change in the southern African country cannot come through the ballot box.

DEVELOPMENT-SOUTH AFRICA: The High Cost of Death Hurts the Living

South Africa's first comprehensive look at the financial lives of poor families has uncovered a fascinating world where things are not always as they appear.

ENVIRONMENT-SWAZILAND: Indigenous Trees Facing Extinction

Can carved masks, toy drums and grass baskets pull Swazis out of the chronic poverty that grips two-thirds of Swaziland's population?

POLITICS-ZIMBABWE: Mugabe Extends a Hand of Friendship to Opposition

Supporters of Zimbabwe's main opposition party look frustrated and helpless following their defeat in the Mar. 31 elections which civil society groups claim were rigged by President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party.

ENVIRONMENT-SOUTHERN AFRICA: Animal Wars Far From Over

The recent shooting death of an off-duty game ranger by poachers has reminded Southern African conservationists that the ‘'animal wars'' that peaked during the 1990s are far from over a decade later.

HEALTH-NAMIBIA: Children Seen As Window of Hope for HIV Prevention

Namibia has identified the need to strengthen sexual health education in school curriculum in response to the threat being posed by the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

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.

POLITICS-SWAZILAND: Only Int’l Pressure Can End Corruption

Sipho Shongwe, a traditional chief who last year was appointed by King Mswati as the minister in charge of health and social welfare, sounded shocked and wounded following his first encounters with the depths of corruption in government.

POLITICS-ZIMBABWE: From Anti-Blair to Aunty Blair?

Zimbabwe's last parliamentary election, held in 2000, transfixed the attention of the international community. A substantial number of column inches were devoted to the campaign of farm occupations and human rights abuses that preceded the ballot - and the allegations of vote rigging that followed.

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.

RIGHTS: South African Girls Bend it Like Beckham

When a small piece of South African history was made recently in the coastal city of Cape Town, it looked as if the boys would have the last laugh.

RIGHTS-SWAZILAND: “A Custom Tied to a Lifestyle That No Longer Exists”

The custom of paying a bride price – referred to in Swaziland as "lobola" – is a longstanding tradition in this Southern African country, which is also home to Africa’s last absolute monarchy.

POLITICS-ZIMBABWE: Upcoming Vote a Rite of Passage for SADC Guidelines

Daniel Molokela is joining other exiled Zimbabwean activists in planning a mock election in South Africa’s capital, Pretoria, ahead of the parliamentary poll in Zimbabwe on Mar. 31. Hopes are that about 1,000 Zimbabweans will congregate in front of their country’s embassy to support the event.

POLITICS-ZIMBABWE: A Campaign Tailor-Made for the Ruling Party

A routine visit to a relative living in a rural area is, in most parts of Africa, a private family matter. Not so in Zimbabwe, says Tiseke Kasambala, a researcher with Human Rights Watch.

SCIENCE-SOUTH AFRICA: Fair Uses Fun to Make Up for the Past, Plan for Future

For the past week, a historic university town in South Africa's Eastern Cape province has reverberated with some unlikely noises: the sound of rockets igniting, robots chirping and home-made cars racing.

POLITICS-NAMIBIA: Vote Recount Creates New Tension

Many Namibians are irritated or confused about the real results of their country’s parliamentary elections. Short before the main television news of the national broadcaster, the Namibia Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), Mar. 16, the Electoral Commission had announced the surprising results of the election recount.

RIGHTS: Children Bear the Brunt of Donor Hostility to Zimbabwe, Says UNICEF

Carol Bellamy's final trip to Africa as head of the United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF, has been overshadowed by what she terms the "stark contrast" between aid given to Zimbabwe - and that received by other African countries in need, especially those in Southern Africa.