Aids activists have questioned the government’s boasts that it has the largest anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment programme in the world. Recently, Cabinet spokesperson Joel Netshitenzhe said 134 473 people were on ARV treatment in the public health sector at the end of March, and an estimated additional 80 000 were on treatment provided by the private and NGO sectors.
It is an anniversary that China wants to forget. It’s been 40 years since the start of the Cultural Revolution, one of the most insane episodes of the 20th century when children turned on parents, pupils tyrannised teachers and hundreds of thousands died in the name of class war.
Legions of giant crabs clawing their way along the bottom of the Barents Sea are proving a godsend to the few fishermen authorised to catch the lucrative crustacean, but some fear the crabs are threatening the sea’s fragile ecosystem. The Kamchatka crab, was introduced into the Barents by the Soviets in the 1960s — about 30 years after a first, failed attempt by Stalin.
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For women who are victims of rape, recovery from the violation is typically arduous and draining. When they’re unable to get treatment to prevent possible HIV infection the process is even more fraught, however — something with which Kenya is grappling. Known as post-exposure prophylaxis, the anti-HIV treatment is available in just seven of the 73 government district hospitals in Kenya.
Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka’s office welcomed the findings of Parliament’s joint committee on members’ ethics which on Tuesday cleared her of breaching the MPs’ code of conduct. The committee found that the deputy president did not breach the code as she did not intend gaining financially when establishing the Lesila Burial Society.
A suspected member of al-Qaeda in Iraq confessed on Jordanian television on Tuesday to last year murdering a Jordanian driver in Iraq and abducting two Moroccan embassy employees. The man, who identified himself as Iraqi national Ziad Khalaf al-Karbuli, said during the 15-minute tape that he shot to death Khalid Dassuki.
Indian troops sealed off large parts of Kashmir’s summer capital following random grenade attacks and murders ahead of a visit on Wednesday by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Combat troops backed up commandos and border guards in Srinagar, where residents in several districts found themselves corralled into ”sanitised zones” on Tuesday.
One thing that has become increasingly evident among the Springbok squad of 2006, assembled in Bloemfontein, is that the team looks desperately short of pace out wide. Of the initial squad of 45, only 27 went through their paces at Shimla Park on Tuesday afternoon, and of those 27, not one player was an out-and-out winger.
The African Union on Tuesday suggested that United Nations peacekeeping troops should be sent to Sudan’s Darfur region within two months to bolster a peace accord and prevent the humanitarian crisis from worsening. AU commission chairperson Alpha Oumar Konare said the accord sealed in Abuja, Nigeria ”will be credible if we can ensure the commitment becomes a reality”.