ECONOMY-ZAMBIA: Business Closes its Eyes to the Dangers of AIDS

A report by international auditing company PricewaterhouseCoopers says Zambia's economy may lose about 50 million dollars annually if the current rate of HIV infection continues unchecked.

ENVIRONMENT-MALAWI: Chilis Prompt Elephants to Cool Their Heels

Elephants and humans have long found themselves at loggerheads in Africa, and Malawi is no exception to this trend.

HEALTH-SWAZILAND: Prisons Break the Taboo Surrounding AIDS

2004 is shaping up as the year of prison reform in Swaziland, and AIDS is the catalyst.

MEDIA-AFRICA: A Depressing Start to 2004 for African Journalists

The new year has started on a bad note for the media in Africa, with journalists under siege in various parts of the continent.

CORRUPTION-MALAWI: ‘Fat Cats’ Still Bask in Glory

Corrupt 'fat cats' continue to walk around with their heads held high even though they have been caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

POLITICS-ZIMBABWE: Complex Race Relations as New Year Dawns

A glance around the Jock and Saddle pub gives a telling glimpse of the uneasy path that Zimbabweans are treading towards racial integration.

TRANSPORT-AFRICA: Too Many Air Disasters

African airlines have set an ambitious target of reducing by 50 percent the number of accidents by the year 2010.

HEALTH-AFRICA: HIV/AIDS Campaigners Invest in the Youth

The new year has begun with a small but significant contribution to the fight against AIDS, which is devastating Sub-Saharan Africa.

DEVELOPMENT-SWAZILAND: Drought Shows Weaknesses in Traditional Farming

Government officials in Swaziland have taken to calling the current drought in the kingdom "the worst in recorded history". But for Amos Mhlanga, a subsistence farmer near the southern border town of LaVumisa, the latest weather pattern is sadly familiar.

DEVELOPMENT-ZAMBIA: Nation Reaps Benefit from Zimbabwean Farmers

White Zimbabwean farmers who sought refuge in Zambia, have helped the country pull out of a crippling food shortage that saw millions of people relying on food aid last season.

DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: Millet, Sorghum Could Hold the Key to Food Security

For many subsistence farmers in semi-arid regions of southern Africa, dependence on drought relief is tantamount to serving a death sentence.

POLITICS-ZIMBABWE: Gloomier Times Ahead

The future has never been as uncertain for Zimbabwe as it is now. Ever rising food prices, shortages of basic needs, strikes in vital public services and hate speeches have now become the way of life.

ECONOMY-ZAMBIA: Breweries Trying to Have Their Cake and Eat It?

As the festive season in Zambia heads towards its climax, Zambian Breweries - a leading beer producer - has adopted a self-regulatory code of conduct to encourage responsible alcohol consumption. However, various bar owners are already describing the code as wishful thinking.

POLITICS-ZIMBABWE: Opposition Calls for United Front to Oust Mugabe

Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is gearing up for more strident resistance to the government, but this time through a broad alliance with the country's major civic organisations.

HEALTH-ZIMBABWE: Food Crisis Looks Set to Drag On

Once every month for the past two years, Komborerai Moyo has joined hundreds of his fellow villagers and queued up to receive food handouts from donor agencies.

ECONOMY-ZIMBABWE: Officials Try Salvaging the Reputation of Asbestos

The fortunes of asbestos have declined in recent years, after the realisation that inhaling asbestos fibres could lead to cancer. However, debate about the safety of this mineral hasn't ended yet - at least not in Zimbabwe.

ECONOMY-MALAWI: Farewell to the "Golden Leaf"

The global campaign against smoking has served as a wake up call for Malawi, which has an economy that is heavily dependent on the tobacco industry. The poverty-stricken southern African country is now seeking substitutes for tobacco - as yet, without much success.

RIGHTS: Child-Headed Households Growing in Swaziland

How does it feel to be an orphan in a country where by tradition there are no orphans?

HEALTH-ZAMBIA: Rains Bring "Preventable" Outbreak of Cholera

Six people have died from cholera and another 165 are reported to be in a serious condition as the disease sweeps through Zambia's capital, Lusaka.

COMMUNICATIONS: Mobile Phones in Vogue in Africa

Africans' insatiable appetite for cell phones has made the continent a profitable market for the high-tech gadgets, which were introduced only a decade ago. But in the intervening ten years, the sales figures have masked a larger social story: how the proliferation of cell phones is changing Africans' relationships with one another.

HEALTH-ZIMBABWE: Hospitals Turn Patients Away As Strike Begins to Bite

The strike by medical doctors and nurses in Zimbabwe is crippling the public health sector, at a time when the poor cannot afford high fees that private hospitals charge.