Zim crisis taints Mbeki, boosts Zuma

South African President Thabo Mbeki's refusal to take a tougher line on neighbouring Zimbabwe has further damaged his credibility and handed rival Jacob Zuma another opening to improve his image. Regional leaders last year mandated Mbeki to lead mediation between President Robert Mugabe and the opposition.

China arrests leading rights activist

Chinese state security forces have arrested one of the country's most prominent civil rights activists in an apparent crackdown on dissent ahead of the Olympics. Hu Jia -- who used blogs, webcasts and video to expose human rights abuses -- is expected to face charges of inciting subversion of state power, his lawyers said on Saturday.

TAC's Zackie Achmat gets married

South African HIV/Aids activist Zackie Achmat got married to his co-campaigner boyfriend at a ceremony attended by hundreds of guests, newspapers reported on Sunday. Achmat (45), founder and chairperson of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), the country's main Aids lobby, married Dalli Weyers on Saturday at a colourful occasion near Cape Town.

Mbeki 'must give others a chance'

Sara Kadi, a volunteer Aids worker who lives in a shack without electricity in an impoverished part of Soweto, wants a better life. That is why she wants Jacob Zuma to win the race for the leadership of the ruling African National Congress and become the next president of South Africa.

Aids activists dismayed by ANC leadership race

The battle to lead the African National Congress (ANC) pits an Aids dissident against a rival who took a shower as a form of safe sex, in a country that has the world's highest rate of HIV infections. The ANC is electing its new leaders at a conference in Polokwane, Limpopo, that starts on Sunday.

Fight against Aids: 'We must do more'

Activists and global leaders used World Aids Day on Saturday to warn against complacency in fighting the disease and called on governments to fill a multibillion-dollar funding gap. "We have made tangible and remarkable progress on all these fronts. But we must do more," United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said.

Six years on: Mbeki, the Aids dissident

President Thabo Mbeki remains an "Aids dissident" who has told a biographer that he regrets bowing to pressure from his Cabinet to "withdraw from the debate" over the disease ravaging South Africa. According to a long-awaited biography by Mark Gevisser, the president feels aggrieved that he was deflected from continuing to question the causes of the epidemic.

Aids activist urges new TB plan

African nations are failing to control tuberculosis and could be overwhelmed by drug resistant strains of the infectious lung disease, with dire implications for the war on HIV/Aids, a leading Aids activist said on Monday. "The explosion of tuberculosis on the continent is combined with the explosion and advance of the HIV epidemic," said Zackie Achmat of the Treatment Action Campaign.

Aids, law and culture

It seems the battle between Aids activists and government on how to move forward in the fight against HIV/Aids is (almost) over. The National Strategic Plan on HIV/Aids is ready for implementation. One of the plan's goals is to "identify and remove legal, policy, religious and cultural barriers to effective HIV prevention, treatment and support". Good thinking! But how, exactly?

ANC: We knew of Manto's theft charges

The African National Congress (ANC) said on Wednesday it knew about Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang's dismissal on theft charges from a Botswana hospital in 1976, South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) radio news reported. The Sunday Times reported two weeks ago that Tshabalala-Msimang had been convicted of theft.

Activists accuse Manto of hampering Aids fight

Embattled Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang was accused by Aids activists on Wednesday of fuelling the country's HIV crisis by obstructing efforts to combat the disease. A raft of NGOs, including the leading Aids lobby, said the recent sacking of the deputy health minister had raised fears that a widely praised Aids programme was being undermined.

SA recalls 20-million risky condoms

South Africa's Health Department said on Tuesday it has recalled 20-million potentially defective condoms approved by an official accused of taking bribes from a manufacturer. Unsafe sex is especially risky in South Africa, which has one of the world's highest HIV infection rates with an estimated 12% of its 47-million people infected with the virus.

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