HEALTH-ZAMBIA: Poverty Stifling War on Malaria

Zambia’s quest to fight Malaria has come under an unprecedented challenge as it scales up to overcome an epidemic that is claiming an average of 50,000 lives a year.

HEALTH-MOZAMBIQUE: AIDS Stripping Widows Of Their Rights

When her husband died two months ago, Albertina Come did not only lose him. She also lost their house and belongings acquired through hard work over ten years of marriage.

RIGHTS: Army Recruits Seek Legal Action over HIV Sacking

A legal battle looms between the army and four South Africans who claim they have been shut out of the military because they tested HIV positive.

RIGHTS: Concern Over New Law Extends Beyond Zimbabwe’s Borders

A proposed new law that’s set to curtail the activities of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Zimbabwe has grabbed the attention of many among Southern Africa’s human rights defenders.

ECONOMY-ANGOLA: Search for Business Opportunities in a Murky Environment

A high-level South African delegation is in Angola this week to explore economic opportunities there, in the aftermath of that country's civil war.

ECONOMY-ANGOLA: Search for Business Opportunities in a Murky Environment

A high-level South African delegation is in Angola this week to explore economic opportunities there, in the aftermath of that country’s civil war.

POLITICS-ZIMBABWE: Media Monopoly Said to Underpin Mugabe’s Popularity

An opinion poll published this week indicates that trust in Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has more than doubled since 1999. Researchers says certain Zimbabweans have benefited from ruling party patronage, but that Mugabe’s higher approval rating can mostly be ascribed to state propaganda.

ECONOMY-SOUTHERN AFRICA: Energy Shortages a Pressing Concern

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) this week voiced concern about energy shortfalls in the region.

POLITICS-EAST AFRICA: Inclusive Government Crucial for Burundi – Ambassador

Burundi’s ambassador to Kenya has reiterated the importance of establishing an ethnically-inclusive government in his country. This came after a massacre last week, in which about 160 people were killed in a refugee camp for Congolese Tutsis in Burundi.

RIGHTS-AFRICA: Helping the Continent to Grow Old Gracefully

"If only I can stop sewing for a month, my cough will come down...I spend the money from my sewing for buying food and making sandwiches for my grandchildren to take to school," says an old South African woman captured on video while working at an archaic sewing machine.

RIGHTS-ZIMBABWE: Time’s Up for the "Kerb Crawlers"

A recent crackdown on men who frequent prostitutes in Zimbabwe has left human rights activists there a little confused.

POLITICS-SUDAN: Foreign Troops Run Gauntlet of Government Displeasure

Television footage aired over the weekend showed a group of Rwandan soldiers dancing and clapping their hands. With AK-47 assault rifles firmly strapped across their shoulders, the 150 troops sported green berets adorned with African Union badges as they waited to hear a speech from President Paul Kagame.

DEVELOPMENT-SOUTH AFRICA: Avian Flu Clips Wings of Poultry Sector

Mozambique has become the latest country to impose a ban on imports of poultry products from South Africa following an outbreak of avian influenza virus in the Eastern Cape Province.

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.

CULTURE: Congolese Welcome Swahili As Official African Language

News that Swahili has been adopted as one of the African Union’s working languages has been well received in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where nearly half the population speaks it, writes it, or understands it.

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.