CULTURE-NIGERIA: ‘Indecent’ Dressing Banned on the Campus

Sexual harassment of female students in Nigeria has often been blamed on randy lecturers, but the university authorities are fighting back.

POLITICS-ZIMBABWE: Ruling Party Holds Key to Ending Crisis

Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change has held talks with Malawi's President Bakili Muluzi to try and chart a roadmap to resolving the deepening crisis dogging the southern African country.

ENVIRONMENT: African Jumbos Find New Home Overseas

The presence of two Russian-made Aleutian Planes, the largest aircraft to ever fly into or out of Swaziland, attracted the attention of residents living near the small country's one international airport, at Matsapha in the centre of the country.

POLITICS-ZIMBABWE: Women Mourn their Lack of Political Clout

As crucial municipal polls got underway in Zimbabwe on August 30 and 31, gender activists could only marvel at how little inroads women have made in politics.

ENVIRONMENT-AFRICA: Endangered Wild Dogs Caught in Poaching Stampede

They hunt in family groups over great distances, chasing mostly impala, kudu and duiker until the prey tires and can be caught.

CULTURE-TANZANIA: Media Still Treats Women as Sex Workers, Mothers, Wives

The lack of women's voices and limited portrayal of their roles in the media may soon change if a new plan to correct those anomalies is implemented in Tanzania.

ECONOMY-SWAZILAND: Women Own Majority of Small Businesses

Since the publication last week of a government report that showed a majority of small businesses are owned by Swazi women, women's empowerment groups are trying to reconcile this surprising news with the reality that Swazi women are legally minors with limited rights in this small country.

ENVIRONMENT-AFRICA: Millions of Women Still Trek Farther for Water

The link between environmental degradation and worsening poverty levels in African nations has left the realm of anecdotal evidence and now has the solidity of hard fact, thanks to data collected in a new Human Development Report published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

CORRUPTION-SOUTHERN AFRICA: Poverty Fuels Corporate Bribery

Corporations stand accused of breeding corruption in Southern Africa as they pursue lucrative government contracts.

POLITICS-MALAWI: President to fight for the Political Inclusion of Women

Malawian President Bakili Muluzi has urged legislators in his Southern African nation to amend the country's Constitution to allow him to appoint more women Parliamentarians in a bid to increase women's participation in politics and other decision making organs.

CULTURE-SWAZILAND: Mswati Takes Eleventh Bride, Criticised for Breaking

When the revered leader of a country crippled by an AIDS crisis breaks his own rules intended to curb the HIV infection rate, the policy is doomed to failure, critics of King Mswati's decision to take an eleventh bride said this week.

CULTURE-SOUTHERN AFRICA: Progress Towards Gender Equality Disappointing

Southern Africa leaders reaffirmed their commitment to reach a target of at least 30 percent of women in political and decision-making structures by 2005.

HEALTH-SOUTHERN AFRICA: AIDS Worsens Food Shortage

Food shortages, facing Southern Africa, will worsen if actions are not taken urgently to stop the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, aid agencies warn.

DEVELOPMENT: EU Takes Advantage of Africa’s Weakness to Impose Conditions

The European Union is taking advantage of Africa's weak bargaining power to bloat the list of conditions - attached to development aid - with further demands.

DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: Leaders Appeal for Talks Not War

If Africa is to advance economically and socially, sincere dialoguing must replace armed conflict, strikes and dirty politics, delegates at a heads of state summit held in Swaziland this week agreed.

CULTURE-ZIMBABWE: Women Bear the Brunt of Economic Difficulties

For taking part in the protest, 48 women and four babies were bundled into police vehicles and detained in cramped cells for two days.

RIGHTS-KENYA: Torture Victims Seek Redress

Most of them were picked up at night by the dreaded secret police, driven to a torture chamber and after weeks or months of interrogation and torture, were set free.

ECONOMY: Zimbabwe Battles Hyper-inflation

There is no solution in sight and economists say it can only get worse.

POLITICS-AFRICA: President-for-life Syndrome

Africans are fighting a new war: president-for-life syndrome.

POLITICS-ZAMBIA: Anti-Corruption Campaign Moves into High Gear

As Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa's anti-corruption moves into high gear, he himself has been accused of several charges of corruption - not in court though, but in the supreme lawmaking body - the national assembly.

/WTO-CANCUN/AFRICA: Farm Subsidies High On the Agenda

Farmers in sub-Saharan Africa could earn about two billion U.S. dollars more every year if industrialised countries dropped their trade-distorting agricultural policies and opened their markets to goods from the developing world, says the International Food Policy Research Institute.