HEALTH-MALAWI: Lobbyists Smile As Anti-Smoking Treaty Starts To Bite

As next months ratification of the World Health Organisation's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) treaty begins to gather momentum, anti-smoking lobbyists in Malawi have already started to celebrate victory.

SPORTS: Nigeria Prepares to Host All African Games

The rich Nigerian culture was on showcase this week as the country opened its new National Stadium in Abuja, the nation's capital, in preparatory for the 8th All African Games scheduled for Oct 4-18.

DEVELOPMENT: Iraqi War A Wake Up Call For Africa

The war in Iraq is a wake up call for Africa to rid itself of aid dependent economies and to realise that the future of the continent lies in the hands of Africans and not foreigners, South African Trade Minister Alec Erwin said on Monday.

IRAQ: The West May Try to Impose its Definition of Democracy on Africa – Mbeki

South African President Thabo Mbeki on Monday warned that unless the United Nations is respected by all the nations of the world, there is a danger that powerful countries will try and impose their definition of democracy on states in Africa.

RIGHTS: Women Demand Major Say in Africa’s Development

As African leaders and business executives gather in South Africa's commercial capital Johannesburg on Monday for a three-day dialogue within the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), African businesswomen say the "gender blind" blueprint needs a major overhaul to benefit women.

POLITICS-SWAZILAND: Lawmakers Engage the King in Constitutional Reforms

Country maps of this small Southern Africa kingdom show Mbabane as Swaziland's capital. But just as the single-tribe nation is ruled by a dual monarchy, with King Mswati from his royal village Engabezweni and Queen Mother Ntombi from her royal village Ludzidzini, Swaziland has a traditional capital 20 kilometres outside the ministerial high-rises of Mbabane. This is Lobamba, where long-reigning King Sobhuza, Mswati's father, had his royal village.

IRAQ: South Africa Turns Down U.S. Request to Expel Iraqi Ambassador

South Africa has effectively turned-down a request from the United States to close the Iraqi embassy in the country and expel its ambassador.

POLITICS: Renewed Fighting Fails to Stop Congolese From Signing Peace Accord

Despite reports of new fighting in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a peace deal has finally been signed by all the warring parties to end the country's long-running conflict.

RIGHTS-AFRICA: Effective Ways to Tackle Trafficking in Women

The effective way to tackle the growing menace of human trafficking in Southern Africa is for governments to seize the assets of criminal organisations involved in the practice, suggests an expert.

RIGHTS: Breaking the Silence about Gender-based Abuses in Zimbabwe

During the day, she hid in farms. At night, she slept in the bush or with goats in kraals.

POLITICS-MALAWI: Victory for Democracy As Muluzi Names Pres. Candidate

Most Malawians breathed a sigh of relief this weekend as the gloomy face of President Bakili Muluzi filled the local television screen announcing that the National Executive Council (NEC) of his ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) had endorsed a new person to run as the presidential candidate.

POPULATION-SOUTHERN AFRICA: Society Reconsiders Polygamy

Polygamy is an age-old African custom that is being reconsidered throughout the traditional and largely impoverished nations of the southern Africa, but current times of poor economies and social uncertainties have kept the practice of multiple-wives a reality for millions of largely rural women.

RIGHTS: Reversing Worldwide History of Exploitation of Indigenous Peoples

It looks like an ordinary cactus - thin, thorny fingers growing less than a metre tall in the reddish sands of southern Africa's Kalahari Desert - but on Mar 24 the Hoodia Gordonii reversed a worldwide history of exploitation of indigenous peoples.

POLITICS: South Africa Ponders Over U.S. Request to Expel Iraqi Ambassador

The South African government is facing an international diplomatic and local political bind after the United States asked it to break ties with Iraq.

IRAQ: South African Anti-War Protestors Remain Steadfast

In the week where eight of the South African human shields returned home and CNN slogan no longer says "Strike on Iraq" but rather "War on Iraq", the world faces the reality of a drawn-out conflict with protesters gearing themselves for a new round of anti-war campaigns.

HEALTH-ZAMBIA: Fighting Tuberculosis – an Uphill Battle

Frederick Tembo, 42, was afflicted by unprecedented bouts of fever, low blood pressure, poor appetite, night sweats and general body weakness. Medical doctors and traditional healers tried to help, but failed to diagnose the illness.That was in Sep 2001.

DEVELOPMENT: Ending Hunger in Africa

If Suresh Babu had his way, the small farmer would be supported to solve the problems of hunger and poverty bedeviling Africa.

HEALTH: Charges Laid against Ministers for Failure to Provide AIDS Drugs

Charges of culpable homicide have been laid against the South African minister of health, Manto Tshabala-Msimang, and the minister of trade and industry, Alec Erwin, by the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) - an organisation demanding the provision of anti-AIDS drugs to poor people living with the disease.

RIGHTS: Firms Urged to Pay Reparations to Victims of Apartheid

Local and international companies that benefited from apartheid are likely to come under increased pressure to pay reparations to the victims of racial discrimination and exploitation, after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) handed in its final report to the South African government.

POLITICS: Cricket World Cup Overshadowed by Threats of Rain and War

Australia comfortably beat India to win the 2003 cricket world cup, in a match overshadowed by threats of rain and war.

IRAQ: South Africa Salutes Growing Global Movement against Gulf War

The South African government has joined civil society in expressing its regret at the outbreak of war against Iraq, while also saluting the growing peace movement ranged against conflict.