ECONOMY-SOUTHERN AFRICA: Cross-Border Traders No Longer Small Fry

Stand at any border post in Southern Africa and watch who goes through it: women with heads and arms laden, people on bicycles and cars that have teetering piles of goods, mini-bus taxis with stacked roofs, dragging trailers.

RIGHTS-ZIMBABWE: Media Environment Bodes Ill for 2005 Poll

When two reporters and a lawyer traveled to Zimbabwe recently on a fact-finding mission, they found it a journey of the most arduous kind.

POLITICS-GHANA: Election Battle Comes to South Africa

The campaign trail for Ghana’s general election in December is taking a detour through South Africa this week, with the visit of opposition leader John Evans Atta Mills.

HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: Like Apartheid ‘We Must Defeat TB’

''To get their freedom, South Africans fought apartheid without backing off. So let's use the same method to defeat TB,'' says a short video clip prepared for the country's anti-TB campaign.

HEALTH-SOUTHERN AFRICA: Role for Marijuana in AIDS Treatment

Advocates of new medical treatments for people living with HIV and AIDS are compiling scientific studies and anecdotal evidence to make a case for the use of the locally-grown illegal weed dagga (marijuana) to assist those who have contracted the virus or have developed AIDS.

/REPEATING/HEALTH-NAMIBIA: Regional Efforts Needed To Defeat AIDS

Namibia's health officials are grappling with the magnitude of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the Caprivi Strip, which borders three of the world's worst affected countries - Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana.

DEVELOPMENT-MALAWI: Food Security Remains a Distant Dream

Forty years after independence, Malawi is still unable to ensure food security for its population which is growing at a rate of 2 percent per year, according to the country’s national statistical office.

HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: Cost Limiting the Use of Female Condom

It’s bigger and uglier than its male counterpart. Sometimes it even makes a noise. But many South African women who have used it, say they prefer it. Ten years after it was first introduced to South Africa, the female condom, or femidom, is gaining popularity in the country, but cost is limiting its use.

DEVELOPMENT-MALAWI: Rapid Urbanisation Looks Irreversible

Every morning, residents of Malawi’s sprawling commercial hub, Blantyre wake up to deafening noises as hundreds of thousands of people pour into the city to try to make a living.

HEALTH-ZIMBABWE: Decent Burial Beyond The Reach Of Majority

Bodies are piling up in Harare’s mortuaries, because relatives of the dead refuse to claim them. Most of these relatives cannot afford the cost of a funeral. While the city council has been giving paupers’ burials to the unclaimed bodies, it is now running out of burial space.

HIV/AIDS-SOUTHERN AFRICA: The War On The Pandemic Reaps Positive Results

Southern Africa is responding to its AIDS pandemic with new programmes that promoters say must be as adaptable as the HIV virus itself.

HIV/AIDS: Zimbabwe’s ‘Exclusion’ from Global Fund Questioned

The decision to ‘’exclude’’ Zimbabwe from benefiting from the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria has raised a number of ethical questions. Campaigners are asking whether need and desire to prolong people’s lives should prevail over politics and controversies surrounding the legitimacy of President Robert Mugabe’s government.

HEALTH-MAURITIUS: An Army of Volunteers Fights AIDS, Drugs

The tiny Indian Ocean island of Mauritius has assembled an army of volunteers to fight AIDS and drugs that are threatening the country.

HIV/AIDS-SOUTHERN AFRICA: In Death’s Face There’s a Ray of Hope

Strong leadership, access to life- prolonging drugs and reducing infections will be the main challenges facing southern Africa in the next decade, AIDS campaigners say.

RIGHTS-SWAZILAND: Churches Overcome Embarrassment to Tackle AIDS

Churches in Swaziland appear to be stepping up efforts to fight the AIDS pandemic – and to help their congregations deal with sexual abuse. This comes in the wake of revelations that this tiny Southern African country now has the world’s highest HIV prevalence.

ENERGY-DRC: Power Under Uncertain Circumstances

In recent years, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has become a byword for violence and human rights abuse. Now, inhabitants of Butembo in the North Kivu province are seeking renown for something else: entrepreneurial initiative.

ECONOMY-SOUTH AFRICA: Bringing the Margins Into the Mainstream

It is one of the most-discussed sectors of South Africa’s economy, but also one of the most difficult to define – encompassing everyone from collectors of scrap cardboard to the managers of tiny businesses.

DEVELOPMENT-SOUTHERN AFRICA: NEPAD Highlights Infrastructure Needs

"If you see a set of bright, shining lights at night, it's not a vehicle but a giraffe that got stuck in a pothole in the middle of the road. So, watch out," Zambians used to joke about the state of their roads a few years ago.

POLITICS-ZIMBABWE: Calling Those With Deep Pockets, and Vast Patience

Political office has never been for the faint-of-heart. Getting into office is often a dirty business, and staying there a trying one. There's no denying, however, that legislators from developing countries - in the case of this article, Zimbabwe - face a particularly challenging set of circumstances.

HEALTH-ZIMBABWE: Street Children Vulnerable to AIDS

Children who "live rough" on the streets of Zimbabwe's capital and other cities, face a multitude of problems – including AIDS.

POLITICS: An African Army, for Africans?

As the third annual summit of the African Union (AU) draws closer, the spotlight is falling on the organisation's newest branch: the Peace and Security Council, and its proposed standby force.