South Africa is at the crest of a wave of international studies to test the safety and efficacy of a seaweed-based microbicide, which once inserted into a woman’s vagina could help prevent the spread of Aids. The study is particularly important in societies where women have difficulty persuading partners to use condoms. If proven to be efficacious, plans will be made to mass-produce and market the product.

In the panoply of human rights, it isn’t the first to trip off the tongue. But more than 150 delegates at an international conference on Wednesday urged that it should be. The world toilet summit began in Beijing with experts demanding that access to and cleanliness of public loos should be a basic human right.

The Palestinian leadership is to send a delegation to Paris in an attempt to establish the cause of Yasser Arafat’s death last week amid a growing belief among Palestinians that he was poisoned by Israel. The dispatch follows France’s refusal to permit Palestinian officials to see Arafat’s medical records on the grounds of confidentiality.

Iraqi authorities on Wednesday admitted they still had no clear idea about who killed the aid worker Margaret Hassan. Investigators are being hindered by the uniqueness of the case, and the complexity of the insurgency. In previous kidnappings, Iraq’s several insurgent groups have been quick to identify themselves and claim responsibility, using videos to make their demands.

The French President, Jacques Chirac, expressed fresh doubts about the invasion of Iraq on the eve of his visit on Thursday to Britain, saying it had left ”the world more dangerous”. Chirac’s comment, in an interview broadcast on Wednesday night, came only 48 hours after he undercut Tony Blair by suggesting the British prime minister had failed to secure any concessions from George Bush in spite of supporting the war.

Namibia’s South West African People’s Organisation (Swapo) is set for another landslide election victory in what has been a dour election, with low-key campaigning. With only a sprinkling of barely legible posters on lamp posts, election paraphernalia has been in short supply in the sparsely populated country where the ruling party’s liberation credentials still hold sway.