High food prices persist in developing countries despite an improved global cereal supply situation and a sharp decline in international food prices, FAO has warned in its latest Crop Prospects and Food Situation report. This is creating further hardship for millions of poor people already suffering from hunger and undernourishment.

The number of Sudanese refugees returning home from Uganda this year with the assistance of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has topped the 20,000 mark. This brings the total number of people helped home by UNHCR since the signing of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which ended Sudan’s long-running north-south civil war, to nearly 150,000, including 85,000 from Uganda. An additional 160,000 others have repatriated on their own from neighbouring countries.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai tried to put on a brave face Wednesday by suggesting that talks aimed at resolving outstanding issues in the unity government had not reached a deadlock. But events so far show his optimism is misplaced. Crippling the coalition are issues around the fact that Mugabe stripped off the communications sector from a ministry controlled by the MDC, the delay in swearing in Deputy Agriculture Minister Roy Bennett, fresh farms invasions, the continued detention of political prisoners and the appointment of governors, ambassadors and permanent secretaries.

South Africa will face tough choices in the years ahead as its government strives to extend treatment to all who need it through the public health system, a leading health economist told the Fourth South African AIDS Conference earlier this month. Dr Susan Cleary, the director of the Health Economics Unit at the University of Cape Town’s School of Public Health and Family Medicine, outlined the financial dilemma that South Africa will face in the coming decade as the number on HIV treatment grows.

The global economy, which is experiencing the most severe recession since World War II, is projected to shrink by 1.3 percent in 2009, with a slow recovery expected in 2010, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reports in its April World Economic Outlook (WEO) released on Wednesday. Although the rate of contraction should ease from the second quarter of this year, output per capita is still projected to decline in countries representing 75 percent of the world economy. It is expected that growth will re-emerge in 2010 at a pace of 1.9 percent, which is sluggish in comparison to past recoveries.

In Uganda, a fast, cheap diagnostic test based on vinegar is invigorating the battle against cervical cancer. Health activists are raising money to put it in a mobile clinic and health officials are eyeing a national rollout.

Some of the developing world's largest rivers are drying up because of climate change, threatening water supplies in some of the most populous places on Earth, say scientists. Researchers from the US-based National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) analysed data combined with computer models to assess flow in 925 rivers — nearly three quarters of the world's running water supply — between 1948 and 2004.

The battle between the Ministry of Finance and Reserve Bank over the allocation of cars to MPs has left ministers open to charges of hypocrisy by the legislators as they have more than two vehicles each while trying to block their colleagues in parliament from taking any from the central bank.

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) has described the complaints made by the Libyan Embassy in Rabat against three Moroccan newspapers - namely, "Al-Masaa", "Al-Garida Al-Oula" and "Moroccan Events" - as a threat to freedom of expression and the press in Morocco which must be confronted.

The strike by teachers of the four main senior high schools in Bissau entered day four on Thursday, sources close to the Education Ministry told PANA. A similar strike on 19-20 March, observed by 95 per cent of teachers all over the nation, had earlier disrupted the school calendar. "Classes only began in January and have been interrupted by several strike actions of teachers. We have not learnt anything this year. It is better government cancels this school year,” Mr. Pansao Blaté, a final year student of the Agostinho Neto Senior High School, said.

In a rare move, Nigeria's main opposition Action Congress (AC) has commended President Umaru Yar’Adua over his decision not to deploy soldiers to South-west Ekiti state for Saturday’s governorship election re-run. In a statement issued in Lagos, the party described the President’s decision as perhaps ''the single most overt act he has taken in furtherance of his administration’s rule of law mantra and commitment to free and fair elections."

Six aid agencies have urged the Obama administration to consider humanitarian needs in its policy review on Somalia. As the latest piracy attacks off the coast of Somalia capture the world's attention, humanitarian organizations warned that the country remains in the midst of a severe humanitarian crisis. More than three million people are in need of emergency assistance inside the country and half a million Somali refugees have fled to neighboring countries.

Two army officers in Guinea have been arrested on suspicion of plotting a coup, security sources told the BBC. The arrests were made as new military leader Captain Moussa Dadis Camara was preparing to make his first trip out of Guinea since seizing power in December. He led a bloodless coup after the death of Lansana Conte, who had ruled the West African country since 1984.

The Swazi government's slow response to a fast-growing tuberculosis epidemic has eroded the possibility of controlling it. Themba Dlamini, the National TB Control Programme manager, says there has been a nearly ten-fold increase in the last 20 years from about 1 000 TB cases per year in 1987 to over 9,600 cases in 2007. Swaziland also has the world's highest HIV prevalence rate; people living with HIV/AIDS are significantly more vulnerable to catching tuberculosis.

Nigeria's most vocal opposition party, the Action Congress (AC), has criticised the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for its failure to accredit "credible observer groups" for Saturday’s governorship re-run in South West Ekiti state. In a statement issued in Lagos on Thursday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said INEC’s decision to accredit "only the groups that catch its fancy", rather than those widely acclaimed as credible, could be a signal to how the commission would conduct the elections.

With Africa once again experiencing unconstitutional takeover of power as witnessed recently in Mauritania, Guinea and Madagascar, Nigeria has won against a similar development in Togo. The warning was issued by Foreign Affairs Minister Ojo Maduekwe, who has just returned from a fact-finding mission to Togo, which is embroiled in what the Minister termed ''leadership tussle epidemic''.

A £15m package to help the people of Zimbabwe has been announced by International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander. This critical humanitarian aid will mean increased support for the country’s health system, greater access to clean water and more support for struggling farmers in Zimbabwe.

Kenya's president has vowed to punish the perpetrators of an outbreak of violence that left at least 29 people dead in a central town on Monday. Mwai Kibaki described the killings in Karatina as "heinous crimes" and "a matter of great concern" to Kenya.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the number of civilians uprooted in continuing raids by the so-called Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) in the Lubero area of North Kivu over the last seven weeks has risen to over 100,000. A series of concerted attacks carried out by the rebel group against civilians in the villages of Luofu, Kirumba, Kanyabonga and Kayna near Lubero, 170 kms north of Goma, have left a trail of death and destruction and caused recurrent displacement.

The World Health Organizat ion (WHO) has announced that Zambia had achieved a major reduction in malaria mortality through accelerated malaria control activities, joining several other African countries in the crusade to eradicate the disease. Malaria deaths reported from health facilities have declined by 66% in Zambia and this result, along with other data, indicates that Zambia has reached the 2010 Roll Back Malaria target of more than 50% reduction in malaria mortality compared to 2000, said WHO.