The United States government began a major overhaul of its effort to produce an Aids vaccine on Tuesday, stressing a return to basic scientific research after the failure of a key clinical trial last year. Government officials at a summit with Aids scientists pledged to prioritise spending on lab work and animal tests rather than expensive large-scale vaccine trials on humans.
Party leader and head of state Thabo Mbeki narrowly won the first round in the battle for the future of the African National Congress (ANC), but faces a bruising fight ahead as the divided party prepares to select new leaders. The ANC’s key policy conference this week recommended no changes to the way the party elects its leadership.
During apartheid rule in South Africa, the country’s liberation movement used the United Nations as a key battleground to win support for its struggle for democracy and human rights. But these days, South Africa’s UN diplomats find the issues are rarely so clear cut.
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A South African court on Monday dealt a blow to former deputy president Jacob Zuma, ruling that prosecutors may ask Mauritius to release documents which could be used in new corruption proceedings against him. A former hero of South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle, Zuma says charges against him are part of a political plot in the ANC.
South Africa launched a revamped national Aids plan on Wednesday as new research showed the high cost of government inaction on the epidemic — 1Â 500 South Africans are infected with HIV every day. South Africa’s national strategic plan aims to cut new HIV infections by 50% and bring treatment and support to at least 80% of HIV-positive people by 2011.
Zimbabwe’s accelerating economic collapse is putting pressure on its neighbours to end their long resistance to doing something about the crisis. Analysts say Zimbabwe, once one of the strongest countries in Africa, is now a real threat to regional economic stability and has raised the spectre of frightening bloodshed.
President Robert Mugabe’s ruling party is splintering under the impact of Zimbabwe’s economic crisis and may seek to ease him out of office to stop a bloody political meltdown, an influential think tank said. ”The situation is reminiscent of the last stages of Mobutu’s reign in the Congo,” the Brussels-based International Crisis Group said.
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South Africa’s Jacob Zuma is gearing up his undeclared run for the presidency, using careful ”campaign appearances” to reach out to the public on crime, Aids and racial divisions, analysts say. On Saturday, Zuma met the family of a murdered white florist and said it was time the government got serious about crime.
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/ 30 January 2007
South Africa’s Aids epidemic, often regarded by health workers as a disease of the poor, is in fact spreading quickly among the country’s richest and best-educated people, researchers said on Tuesday. A study shows a rapid increase in HIV infections in professional people and those with full-time employment — both key to South Africa’s hopes to spur economic development.
In public, nobody wants to be South Africa’s next leader. In reality, the presidential race began in earnest this week. Political analysts say the country is quietly gearing up for a contentious campaign ahead of a key congress in December when the ruling African National Congress is expected to select a new leader for the party and, in turn, the nation.