HIV/Aids medicines must be free for everyone who needs them in the developing world, or there will be no hope of reaching the United Nations target of three million being treated by 2005, doctors, economists and institutions say on Tuesday.

United States President George Bush is to steer clear of Britain in a new year re-election tour of Europe, partly to give British Prime Minister Tony Blair space to rebuild his damaged foreign policy around the Middle East peace process, climate change and aid to Africa.

Romania was thrown into an uncertain but hopeful period of political turmoil on Monday when the mayor of Bucharest, Traian Basescu, upset predictions and the political establishment to narrowly win the country’s presidency. Running on an anti-sleaze and communist-bashing platform, Basescu unseated the former communists who have run Romania almost uninterruptedly since the revolution of Christmas 1989.

A judge in Genoa on Monday ordered a full trial for 28 officers allegedly involved in a brutal mass beating of demonstrators during the G8 summit three years ago. Almost 100 people, including five Britons, were injured after police, carabinieri and revenue guards stormed a school in Genoa that was the makeshift headquarters of an umbrella protest group.

A Kenyan-born British national has lived at Nairobi airport for six months after being refused entry to Britain and Kenya, marooning him in a bureaucratic twilight zone. Sanjai Shah (42), has a small mattress, sheets, a blanket and daily rations of food from immigration officials to sustain him as he wanders the lounges of Jomo Kenyatta airport.

South Africa is giving ballot boxes, ballot booths, indelible ink, and many other voting materials to Burundi to assist them in holding a free and fair referendum next week, the Foreign Affairs Department said on Monday. This was at the request of Burundi’s Independent Electoral Commission, said departmental spokesperson Lakela Kaunda.

They spent years working their way into the boardrooms of some of the country’s top institutions. Now, a group of top professional black women is poised to take over in an arena you’d least expect: the kitchen. Durban-based black economic empowerment group Ayavuna Women’s Investments is the proud new owner of household appliance manufacturer, Defy.