In a stinging critique of the British government’s Commission for Africa initiative, the NGO Action Aid cautions Prime Minister Tony Blair that the first step in supporting Africa’s development "must be to do it no harm". The NGO acknowledges Blair’s "good intentions", but derides United Kingdom policy and practice. Africa’s problems have constituted complex barriers to development that it cannot tackle alone.
Wealthy nations must “fulfil their pledges” to increase aid to developing countries to meet the United Nations millennium development goals – including curbing the spread of HIV – within the next decade, according to a report Investing in Development. The report will be presented to the Group of Eight industrialised nations at its meeting in July and to the UN General Assembly in September.
Uganda is adopting sexual abstinence-only programmes financed by the United States that could undo its successes. Human Rights Watch warns that the new policies, which promote abstinence until marriage rather than condom use, leave not only young unmarried people but also women married to unfaithful men without the knowledge they need to protect themselves from infection.
President Thabo Mbeki’s announcement of the retirement of Chief Justice Arthur Chaskalson means there will be a new incumbent by the second half of this year. He or she will inherit a right mess. A few weeks ago it might have been hoped, thanks to the adroit handling of the African National Congress’s January 8 statement by Judge Chaskalson, that the crisis had passed …
A new strain of HIV – resistant to three of the four classes of anti-retroviral drugs available – has been identified in New York, according to city health officials. Of particular concern was the rapidity at which the strain progressed to Aids in the infected individual.
In their complex and protracted mediation efforts in Africa, South African negotiators have long since learned not to believe everything they read on the news pages. But they dare not ignore the finance pages. So when the New Forces rebel movement in Côte d’Ivoire reportedly pronounced the mediation efforts dead and buried this week, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad remained sanguine.
South African troops played just a small role in an attack on a Congolese militia camp this week, the South African Department of Defence said on Thursday. Two platoons of South African infantry were initially in reserve with some Nepalese troops while two companies of Pakistani troops attacked.
The chief executive of the National House of Traditional Leaders, Malungisa Gobe, has died in a car accident in Zimbabwe. Two other members of the House, spokesperson Sibusiso Nkosi and North West chairperson Chief ME Mabi, were injured in the accident on Wednesday, as was a Zimbabwean national travelling with them.
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Incessant questioning by relentless prosecutor Billy Downer appears to be taking its toll on fraud and corruption accused Schabir Shaik in the Durban High Court. ”It’s been a long trial. I have been under a lot of stress and my words are spinning out of context,” Shaik said at one stage.
Up to 20 people, including children, were killed in northern China when explosives stored in the home of a mine operator blew up near a school, local officials and state media said on Thursday. Local press reports said at least 20 children died and the Beixinzhuang elementary school was badly damaged in the Wednesday-afternoon blast.