Standing beneath the dome of San Francisco’s City Hall last week, amid floral bouquets and wide-eyed onlookers, Josephine and Gieseppina made their vows and were married; they have been together for eight years. ‘How come I live in the land of the free, yet am not free to spend the rest of my life in my own country with the woman I love?’ said Josephine.

The clothes eight-year-old Ali Fadhil was wearing when he was grabbed by kidnappers from the street near his home in the wealthy Zayouna neighbourhood of Baghdad were left outside his mother’s door on Friday. She had washed them overnight before showing them to us on Saturday — a pale blue Mickey Mouse sweatshirt and tracksuit bottoms.

News that you are HIV-positive is devastating but if anyone in South Africa was in a position to combat the virus, it was Fana Khaba, top Johannesburg DJ and chat-show host. Highly knowledgeable about the epidemic, Khaba used his radio show to promote awareness about Aids and had access to the best medical care.

New Zealand recorded their first cricket series win over South Africa in 73 years after clinching a nail-biting match in Auckland on Sunday. New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming described the victory as ”fantastic” as his side scraped home by two runs in the rain-shortened fifth one-dayer to win the series 4-1 — with Tuesday’s final match in Napier to spare.

Africa’s first conference on sexual health and rights ended on Saturday with delegates emphasising that sexual rights should extend to all people living on the continent, including gay communities and adolescents.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi’s insistence that all African armies should merge into a single military force delayed the closing ceremony of a major African Union summit by several hours on Saturday. "It’s never going to work, never. Nobody supports it," said one west African delegate.

The United States is scaling up its military presence in Africa as concern mounts over terrorist threats on the continent, the deputy head of American forces in Europe said. ”The threat is not weakening, it is growing,” said US Air Force General Charles Wald.

Insurance giant Sanlam gave the African National Congress and New National Party one million rand each at the request of former presidents Nelson Mandela and F W de Klerk, Mandela said on Friday. Mandela said he was working together with his predecessor to raise funds and they were approaching big firms for funding.