SOUTH AFRICA: How Discarded Bottles Led to the ‘DNA Project’

DNA profiling has rapidly proved an indispensable tool in fighting crime. The process offers a host of benefits, such as quick identification of criminals, and of innocent suspects - as well as solid evidence for presentation in court.

ZIMBABWE: Death Penalty Stifling Free Speech

Zimbabwean rights activists are campaigning with unprecedented vigour for an end to the death penalty as the country’s political and economic crisis deepens, arguing that this is essential for an open debate on the nation’s future and its joining the "civilised democracies of the world".

DEVELOPMENT-ZIMBABWE: A Herculean Effort Is Needed

‘‘You cannot talk of halving poverty when our country is going in the opposite direction. We are totally lost,’’ says Maxwell Tambarare, a teacher in Chiredzi, a region to the south east of Zimbabwe.

POLITICS-LESOTHO: “No Sense If People Vote and Their Lives Remain the Same”

Results issued this week show that the ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD) has swept to back to power in parliamentary elections held Feb. 17. The party, at the helm since 1998, won 61 of the 80 contested seats - leaving the main opposition grouping, the All Basotho Convention (ABC), to take 17.

ANGOLA: Five Years of Peace Marked by Economic Boom – and Dire Poverty

At dawn exactly five years ago Thursday, the founder and leader of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), Jonas Savimbi, was shot down in an ambush by the Angolan army.

HUMAN RIGHTS-SOUTHERN AFRICA: Mixed Response as Gays Come Out

The issue of lesbian and gay Africans’ human rights again came to the fore this week as Anglican Church leaders met in Tanzania amid the continuing row over the consecration of a gay US bishop in 2003.

DEVELOPMENT-MALAWI: Outlook Remains Bleak for the Poor

Grace Kafere is tired. She has been on her feet for close to five hours, bending over as she moves up and down in a forest gathering twigs and branches to sell as firewood.

DEVELOPMENT-MOZAMBIQUE: Waterlogged, and There May Be Worse to Come

Mozambicans are bracing themselves for a cyclone that could spell further hardship for the 120,000 people devastated by floods over the past few weeks.

MAURITIUS: Syringes and Needles Now Part of Anti-AIDS Arsenal

In contrast to the rest of southern Africa, intravenous (IV) drug users have become the group most vulnerable to the transmission of the HI virus in Mauritius. This has led the Mauritian government to introduce a syringe and needle exchange programme in a bid to stem HIV infection among Mauritian drug users.

DEVELOPMENT-SOUTH AFRICA: Unease in the Wake of an Expropriation

Fritz Ahrens has worked on the family farm, Sterkstroom, since he left school 20 years ago. Born on the 200-hectare property in South Africa's north-eastern Limpopo province, the 40-year-old Ahrens makes a living by helping his father produce litchis, macadamia nuts and avocados. The farm employs 46 full time and seasonal workers.

ENVIRONMENT: Plans to Halt Desertification in Africa a Work in Progress

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) requires signatories to create national action plans for dealing with this scourge that allow sustainable development - and encompass participation by communities, amongst others.

HEALTH-ANGOLA: War, Plague, Pestilence and Death

Nearly five years after the advent of peace in Angola, following four decades of war which cost a million lives, the new killers in this Southern African country are cholera, malaria and AIDS.

POLITICS-ZIMBABWE: President’s Lavish Birthday Plans Slammed

Someone who’s managed to reach the advanced age of 83 might argue that they’re entitled to a sizeable celebration. But this argument doesn’t hold water if the person is Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, says activist Tapera Kapuya.

DEVELOPMENT-TANZANIA: High Growth Still to Benefit the Poor

Just more than a year after Jakaya Kikwete was elected president of Tanzania his name was mentioned in the halls at the Africa Union (AU) summit in January in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, as the possible new chairperson of the AU.

SOUTH AFRICA: More Police to Fight Rising Crime, Pledges Mbeki

Following a campaign by the South African business community to address widespread crime, President Thabo Mbeki acknowledged that it is a serious problem, promising an expanded police force and calling for a national "peace and security drive".

EDUCATION-MOZAMBIQUE: Orphans’ Choice: School or Survival?

The school year kicks off in Mozambique with more children enrolling for primary school than ever in the past. But educational prospects remain bleak for orphans like Regina Massango.

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Floods Leave Trail of Destruction, Disease

Floods have hit a swath of southern Africa, from Mozambique in the east to Angola in the west, causing a marked increase in cholera and malaria cases, say aid workers.

RIGHTS-SOUTH AFRICA: “No Reason for a Child to Go Hungry”

"My child watches TV at the neighbours' and wants me to buy him a toy car, a toy gun and a bar of chocolate being advertised. I can't afford them," said Sibongile Nkosi.

POLITICS-UGANDA: Rebels’ Shrinking List of Peace Mediators, Venues

The focus is now on South Africa, after Kenya turned down a request from a Ugandan rebel group to host the stalled peace talks with the government of President Yoweri Museveni.

HUMAN RIGHTS-MALAWI: Violence Threatens Women’s Meagre Gains

Chanju Mwale is a true role model. Not only does the 28-year-old possess good academic credentials as a lawyer, landing her the job of the Malawi Defence Force’s legal officer, but she is also the only female officer in the force who holds the rank of captain.

SOUTH AFRICA: Fallen Anti-Apartheid Icon Leaves Behind Inequality

Leading anti-apartheid campaigner Adelaide Tambo's struggle for equality in South Africa has paid off in areas of political participation, but the economy still remains in the hands of the country's white minority, say researchers and campaigners.