The Kenyan government is taking steps to incorporate screening for cervical cancer - one of the biggest killers of women of child-bearing age - into HIV care, but health workers say low awareness means the uptake of this vital service is low. Studies show that HIV infection increases women's risk of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, a leading cause of cervical cancer. Cervical cancer screening is included as part of routine care for HIV-positive women under the country's national guidelines for HIV care. However, screening levels remain low; according to the UN World Health Organisation, just 3.2 per cent of Kenyan women aged 18-69 are screened for cervical cancer every three years, compared with 70 per cent of women in the developed world.

In its on-going efforts to provide support and assistance to the long-suffering people of Palestine, the South African Relief Agency (S.A.R.A) in conjunction with communities and other organisations has embarked on another humanitarian relief mission to Gaza. The mission is scheduled to depart from Durban and will travel overland through Africa to Gaza. The primary objective of the mission is to answer the call of the Palestinian people to conscientise the African continent and to break the immoral and illegal siege of Gaza and show solidarity with the beleaguered people in Occupied Palestine.

More details are available from the website.

Following years of discussion, representatives from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) are now testing joint disaster responses in light of increased flooding and more severe droughts in West Africa over the past decade, according to the African Centre of Meteorological Application for Development (ACMAD). 'Major efforts' are under way for 'south-south cooperation between member states', according to Andrea Diop, disaster focal point at ECOWAS, including setting up an Emergency Flood Fund for disaster response which individual countries can tap into; a natural disaster reduction task force; and an Emergency Response team.

Kenya has launched an Open Data portal, the first African country to make government data accessible to the ordinary citizen on an Internet-based platform. The portal will allow users to compare information at national, province and county levels. Users will also create maps and other visualisations and directly download data on their computer or mobile phone.

AIDS drugs designed to treat HIV can also be used to reduce dramatically the risk of infection among heterosexual couples, two studies conducted in Africa have shown for the first time. The findings add to growing evidence that the type of medicines prescribed since the mid-1990s to treat people who are already sick may also hold the key to slowing or even halting the spread of the disease. The research involving couples in Kenya, Uganda and Botswana found that daily Aids drugs reduced infection rates by an average of at least 62 per cent when compared with a placebo.

On 9 July 2011 the world witnessed the birth of a nation - South Sudan, Africa’s 54th country. In an interview with UN Women, South Sudan’s Minister of Gender, Child and Social Welfare Agnes Lasuba weighs in on the country’s independence and what it means for women. 'The women of South Sudan played various roles to achieve independence. During war they picked up arms. Others were mobilisers and others were taking care of the wounded, the sick and the elderly. And others were yearning for peace and they took it upon themselves to lobby other people and other countries, so that there could be peace for them and for their children,' says Lasuba in the interview.

Red tape at border points is costing East Africa $7 million (Sh630 million) for each hour of delay in a year, according to a new study that proposes checks along the Northern Corridor be co-ordinated to ease transport costs. The report, 'Harmonisation of vehicle overload control in the East African Community', sponsored by the Japan International Cooperation Agency shows that trucks take five days to cover the 1,100 kilometres from Mombasa to Kampala - with 19 hours being spent on crossing borders and weighbridges.

Europe's biodiesel industry could be wiped out by EU plans to tackle the unwanted side effects of biofuel production, after studies showed few climate benefits, four papers obtained by Reuters show. Europe's world-leading $13 billion biodiesel industry, which has boomed in the wake of a decision by Brussels policymakers in 2003 to promote it, is now on the verge of being legislated out of existence after the studies revealed biodiesel's indirect impact cancels out most of its benefits.

Public Protector Thuli Madonsela anticipates she will have some tough questions for the government once her probe into missing apartheid billions gets under way. This week Madonsela announced she had reversed her initial decision not to investigate allegations that upwards of R26 billion was looted from state coffers via various schemes under apartheid. The allegations originate from a report compiled by a UK-based investigation and asset recovery firm, Ciex, which alleges it was contracted by the government to track billions which were siphoned from the government in the dying years of apartheid.

Three Zimbabwean government ministers were briefly detained on Sunday evening (10 July) as tension continues to mount in Harare’s troubled coalition, it was reported. Industry and commerce minister Professor Welshman Ncube, also the leader of the smaller faction of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was arrested alongside two ministers from his party as they returned from a meeting in Victoria Falls. He was with regional integration minister Ms Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga and her national healing and reconciliation counterpart Mr Moses Mzila Ndlovu.

A new tool for measuring food price volatility in global agriculture markets could help poor countries or aid agencies like the World Food Programme (WFP) decide where and when to buy staples, says Maximo Torero, director of the US-based International Food Policy Research Institute’s (IFPRI) Markets, Trade and Institutions Division. The early warning tool, NEXQ (Non-parametric Extreme Quantile Model) has been developed by IFPRI and is based on sophisticated economic modelling, which provides daily price variability ratings for four major crops - hard wheat, soft wheat, maize (corn) and soya beans - and aims to help analysts predict price volatility.

Alioune Tine, the executive secretary of the Dakar-based African Human Rights Organisation (RADDHO), who was on 23 June 2011 violently attacked by militants of the ruling Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS) during a demonstration, has gone into hiding after being discharged from hospital. The militants indiscriminately attacked Tine, a prominent human rights defender, to the extent that he was rushed and admitted at the Dakar main hospital.

Senegal has suspended its plans to forcefully send home Chad's former President Hissene Habre, who has been sentenced to death in his home country, Senegal's foreign minister has said. The move followed an appeal by UN human rights chief Navi Pillay. Ms Pillay had expressed concern that Mr Habre could be tortured in Chad. Mr Habre is blamed for killing and torturing tens of thousands of opponents between 1982 and 1990, charges he denies.

Anne Maina of the African Bio-diversity Network says the introduction of patented seeds and related chemicals into Kenya’s farming systems threatens the country’s agricultural practices, its livelihoods, the environment, 'and undermines our seed sovereignty'. The House (Parliamentary) Committee on Agriculture has also warned that opening up the country to genetically modified products would endanger lives. Committee chairman John Mututho said last week that the country lacked technical capacity to assess the quantity and type of genes in imported products, and had a long way to go before fully embracing use of GM products while ensuring the health of its citizens.

Thousands of Nigerians are fleeing the north-eastern city of Maiduguri following a spate of recent attacks, which have killed at least 40 people. Some of those leaving are students after the university was closed. The attacks have been carried out by the radical Islamist group, Boko Haram, which opposes Western education and fights for Islamic rule.

Violence against women is rampant, devastating and tolerated in South Sudan and the new country needs to address these gross human rights violations and train people, especially soldiers, to respect women’s rights. This is according to rights activists in the country. 'I have worked with many women and girls who have been abused. They are beaten by their husbands, raped by the rebel soldiers and they suffer in silence,' says Loise Joel, a human rights activist who runs the non-governmental organisation Human Rights for the Vulnerable, in Central Equatorial State in South Sudan.

While ‘data exclusivity’ clauses will not feature in the India-European Union free trade agreement, the threat posed by the impending deal to the world’s supply of cheap generic drugs is far from over. India’s commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma assured Michel Sidibe, chief of the United Nations joint programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) at a meeting this week that India would reject attempts by pharmaceutical giants to include data exclusivity clauses in the FTA. 'The government of India reaffirms its full commitment to ensure that quality generic medicines, including antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, are seamlessly available, and to make them available to all countries,' Sharma said.

ANC eThekwini regional secretary Sbu Sibiya was shot dead at his home in Inanda, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal police said on Tuesday, 12 July. Brigadier Phindile Radebe said Sibiya (40) was shot in his driveway at 10pm on Monday. He had just returned from his office in Durban.

Africa now accounts for about one per cent of global manufacturing, and cannot realistically hope to reduce widespread poverty if its governments don't take effective measures to expand this vital economic sector, says a new joint report by UNCTAD and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation. The 'Economic Development in Africa Report 2011', subtitled 'Fostering Industrial Development in Africa in the New Global Environment', calls for a practical, well-designed approach to industrialisation, that is adjusted to specific country circumstances and based on extensive discussion with and feedback from businesses and entrepreneurs.

A United Nations agency wants Kenya to open up a new settlement to accommodate refugees who have flocked to the Daadab camp. The head of the UN refugee agency Antonio Guterres was taken aback by the pathetic state of affairs at the camp, one of the word’s largest, when he visited at the weekend. According to UNHCR, the camp initially set up to cater for only 90,000 refugees, has now exceeded the number by nearly five times.