An acute shortage of doctors trained to deliver life-saving drugs to people living with HIV/Aids in Asia is severely hampering treatment efforts, a report said as the 15th International Aids Conference entered its second day on Tuesday. India has only one trained doctor for every 10 000 people living with HIV.
Microsoft will release a major update to the Windows XP computer operating system in August that focuses on boosting protection against malicious intrusions. The company had previously said the free update, called Service Pack 2, would be available sometime this summer but did not offer a specific date.
The Ministry of Defence on Monday evening expressed deep concern about reported allegations of South African National Defence Force members in the Democratic Republic of the Congo being involved in sexual attacks on minors in that country. The Democratic Alliance said the allegations bring South Africa’s integrity into question.
Former security policeman Gideon Nieuwoudt on Monday finished testifying at the re-opened Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings on the 1989 Motherwell car bombing of three policemen and an askari, SABC radio news reported. Nieuwoudt and two others are seeking amnesty for the killings in December 1989.
The South African Medicines Control Council has changed its mind on the use of nevirapine alone to reduce the risk of transmission of HIV from mother to child. It now recommends the medication being used as part of a combination of pharmaceuticals to prevent mothers infecting their children with HIV at birth.
The Eastern Cape department of health on Monday vowed to continue its crackdown on illegal circumcision schools after three officials were stoned and their vehicle damaged. Monday’s attack took place during a raid on illegal initiation schools in Luthuthu village, near Cradock, said a departmental spokesperson.
A five-year community participation project in Malawi has improved the quality of education in more than 2 000 of the country’s schools. The project aims to alleviate problems linked to a the glaring shortage of facilities, poor management and an inadequate number of teachers.
Simon Mann, the alleged mastermind behind a suspected mercenary plot foiled by Zimbabwe, has hired new lawyers to negotiate his release from a maximum-security jail in Harare. One of Mann’s co-accused claimed on Monday that Mann is pursuing a private deal with the Zimbabwe authorities, which could result in his transfer to Britain.
The powerful Austrian Catholic Church was plunged into its second big sex scandal in a decade on Monday when a seminary run by arch-conservatives was alleged to be the site of orgies among young priests and their teachers. The Vienna news magazine Profil has published pictures of priests and students engaged in sexual acts.
American officials are discussing the possibility of postponing November’s presidential election, for the first time in United States history, in the event of a devastating terrorist attack, it emerged on Monday. The Homeland Security Department has warned that al-Qaeda is plotting to disrupt the November 2 election.