Cuba’s most famous political prisoner, the dissident poet Raúl Rivero, was on Tuesday released by Fidel Castro’s regime after serving 18 months of a 20-year sentence. Rivero, whose family had complained that he was sick and was being mistreated in jail, arrived back at his Havana home on what his wife described as medical parole.

”Since the World Economic Forum in Seattle, a debate has erupted. It’s fine to attack corporations — but they’re all part of the state system. So we have to go back to the nature of the state. ”A novelist, historian, movie-maker, geopolitical analyst and activist, Pakistan-born Tariq Ali is visiting South Africa, and remains at 61 as outspoken as ever. He spoke this week to the Mail & Guardian.

<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/142915/aids_icon.gif" align=left> The HIV/Aids pandemic has placed a heavy burden on the elderly, the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) said on Wednesday, World Aids Day.
"The elderly are the unsung heroes of the current pandemic", said Dr Monde Makiwane, a researcher at the HSRC, who conducted a study on the elderly in Mpumalanga.

<li><a target="_blank" class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=Regulars-HivAidsBarometer&ao=125723">Worldwide HIV infections: 60 094 374</a>

<li> <a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=126369">’Very late’ HIV survey in SA prisons</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?cg=BreakingNews-InternationalNews&ao=126363">Some fear HIV/Aids, others cancer</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-InternationalNews&ao=126377">UN report on HIV/Aids</a>

The World Food Programme (WFP) confirmed on Tuesday that it plans to expand its support to 1,6-million Zimbabweans during December via its targeted feeding programme. WFP spokesperson in Zimbabwe, Makena Walker, said that about 25 000-million tonnes of food aid, left over from its assistance programme last year, would be distributed next month to vulnerable groups.

South African journalist Benjamin Joffe-Walt was awarded the Foreign Press Association’s young journalist of the year award in London earlier this week. On assignment for ThisDay newspaper, Joffe-Walt and photographer Alexia Webster produced stories on the disposal of electronic waste in China, climate change in the Maldives, and genocide in Darfur, Sudan.

An Israeli army investigation has concluded that a Palestinian filmed playing his violin at an army checkpoint, prompting outrage among Israelis who said it diminished the Holocaust, was not forced to do so by soldiers. But the violinist, Wissam Tayem, on Tuesday night disputed the army’s assertion that he started playing of his own accord.

<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/142915/aids_icon.gif" align=left>HIV/Aids is a global threat on a par with nuclear terrorism, according to a United Nations report that warned of the potential of viral infections to claim tens of millions of lives worldwide in a matter of months. The report, commissioned by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and released on Tuesday, warned wealthy nations that, in an age of globalisation and mass travel, they ignored the scourge of Aids and other infectious illnesses at their own peril.

A global survey has found that Africans, West Asians and Latin Americans believe that HIV/Aids is the most important disease confronting them — while people elsewhere fear cancer. The Gallup International/Markinor poll interviewed more than 50 000 people in over 60 countries between June and August for their annual Voice of the People survey.