South Africa’s antiretroviral programme is short of R1-billion this year alone, yet the ANC wants to introduce a “wholly unrealistic” National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme within five years. So said SA National AIDS Council deputy chairperson Mark Heywood at the 4th South African AIDS conference.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, James Anaya, visited Bushmen from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana this month. He met with Bushmen who are living inside the reserve without access to water. Professor Anaya visited several Bushman communities in Botswana, including the resettlement camps Kaudwane and New Xade, where the government dumped several thousand Bushmen after forcibly evicting them from their homes inside the reserve. He also visited two Bushman communities inside the reserve, Gugamma and Metsiamenong.

A lecturer in African Politics at the Oxford University, England, Dr. Abdul Raufu Mustapha has called on Nigeria to be cautious in its relationship with China, a technological giant and rising world power. He said that while the technology and friendship of China could be beneficial, Nigeria and Africa must be discerning enough not to allow China undermine their interests.

Macau and South Africa can benefit from a co-operation between the two, Jerry Vilakasi, chief executive officer of the Business Unity of South Africa (BUSA), has said. Speaking to the Macau Daily Times before attending a dinner and cocktail reception with the South African Consul where he was invited as a key speaker, Vilakasi said that with tourism, infrastructure investments and gambling as the major sectors in Macau, both would benefit from a co-operation.

The police fired several canisters of tear gas to disperse opposition protesters in Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania, late on Thursday. The demonstration was held in response to the call by the National Front for the Defence of Democracy (FNDD), which is opposed to the 6 August 2008 military coup, on Mauritanians to resist the coup.

The Rwandan Foreign minister, Ms. Rosemary Museminaly, said here Thursday that some legal technicalities were still stalling the extradition, to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), of rebel leader Laurent Nkund a batware, who was arrested in Rwanda in January. Museminaly, who was speaking as a guest of the European parliament, said, however, that the question of extradition had already been agreed upon in principle by the authorities concerned.

South Africa's president Kgalema Motlanthe, current chairman of the Southern African Development Community, SADC, has been mandated to present a request for an eight-billion US dollar lifeline for Zimbabwe at the G20 summit in London on April 2. He will also have the unenviable task of pleading with the leaders of the world's richest countries to lift travel and visa restrictions imposed on President Robert Mugabe and more than 200 of his party leaders, government officials and loyalists.

South African prosecutors say they will announce on Monday whether they will drop corruption charges against African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma. South Africa media has been full of speculation that the charges will be dropped but a prosecution spokesman said the decision could go either way.

A ban on civil servants in Botswana wearing tight or revealing clothes to work is "sexist", a women's group says. The new directive said they could be disciplined for turning up in tight skirts or trousers, sleeveless tops, or clothes that showed cleavages or backs. The BBC's Letlhogile Lucas says women are particularly angered by a ban on headscarves and elaborate hairstyles.

Imagine you live in a cramped shack too small for you and your family. You fear eviction by the authorities at any time. You face the threat of your home being demolished. This is a reality faced by hundreds of thousands of people in South Africa - every single day.

The United Nations refugee agency has expressed its concern over the increasing trend by Kenyan authorities to forcibly Somali asylum seekers back to their war-torn nation. On 31 March, 31 asylum seekers – nine men, eight women and 14 children – traveling by bus to refugees camps in Dabaab, in north-eastern Kenya, were sent back to Somalia.

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has warned Kenyan leaders that he will act expeditiously and relentlessly against the suspects of the post election violence that rocked Kenya last year. In a terse statement, the ICC prosecutor Louis Moreno Ocampo said through his adviser Beatrice le Fraper du Hellen that he and his team are ready to step in once called to do so. He added that when the Kenyan parliament fails to set up a special tribunal to try those behind the violence the ICC would react.

Over 40 percent of men who have sex with men were HIV positive, suggesting a “hidden epidemic” among this group. This is according to results from a survey of 266 men in Johannesburg and Durban, the vast majority of whom were black, under the age of 25 and identified as gay rather than bisexual.

China Friday called on the international community to "act cautiously" on the Darfur issue as it is afraid rash action could damage peace and stability in Sudan. "The involved parties should fully respect and listen carefully to the voices of the African Union (AU), the Arab League and African and Arabian countries," Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping said in his meeting with visiting Sudanese president's envoy Awad Ahmed al-Jaz in Beijing

In the Great Depression, as in the current economic crisis, the downturn was particularly severe because of a lack of leadership in the international order. The dominant financial power of the 19th century, Britain, was financially exhausted by the First World War. The new major creditor, the United States, had emerged as a strong economic player, but did not yet have leadership committed to the maintenance of an open international economic order. The simple diagnosis was that Britain was unable to lead, and the United States unwilling.

Former Guinean Minister Lansana Kouyate has said his country cannot 'technically' hold elections this year to return the country to democratic rule. Instead, Kouyate, leader of the newly-formed Party for Hope and National Development (PEDN), told journalists here Thursday that a national forum of key stakeholders should be convened to decide on the date for elections in the West African nation, where a military government took power in the wake of the death, on 23 Dec. 2008, of long-serving President Lansana Conte.

The most powerful opposition group in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood, has debunked fears that it will sit out a planned national opposition boycott and demonstration on 6 April, when it announced on Thursday that all Egyptians should join in the Monday activities. The move came after the 6 April Movement entertained fears that the powerful Islamic group would not participate in the strike.

On April 27, 2009 relatives of Ken Saro-Wiwa and other MOSOP members will bring Shell to trial in New York for the company’s complicity in the death of the Ogoni 9. Join us at this benefit for Justice in Nigeria Now (JINN) to support JINN while socializing and learning about the Ogoni and the upcoming trial.

In an attempt to confront the current economic crisis by encouraging pro-poor investment in housing, Mrs. Anna Tibaijuka, Executive Director of UN-HABITAT, Thursday signed six agreements with project partners from Argentina, Bangladesh, Kenya, Nepal, Tanzania and Uganda with the aim of providing funds for affordable housing and infrastructure.

Guinea-Bissau's former Prime Minister Francisco Jose Fadul is recovering in hospital after being beaten by people dressed as soldiers. Mr Fadul said 15 armed men in uniform had raided his house, assaulting him and his wife and stealing computers, phones and even their wedding rings. The beating came after he had urged the government to hold the military to account for alleged corruption.