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/ 15 November 2006
Another reason to quit: Smoking might increase the risk of contracting HIV, according to a study published in the August 21 online edition of the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections. Andrew Furber, a public health consultant at the South East Sheffield Primary Care Trust in the United Kingdom, and colleagues conducted a systematic review of studies examining tobacco smoking as a risk factor for either HIV infection or progression of the virus to Aids.
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/ 15 November 2006
Uganda has become the first country in Africa to try an HIV vaccine on a baby in an effort to find a solution to mother-to-child transmission. The lead investigator of the Makerere University John Hopkins University Research Collaboration (Mujhu), Francis Mmiiro, said the baby was born at Mulago Hospital last week.
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/ 15 November 2006
The government of Sierra Leone is faced with the challenge of stigma attached to HIV/Aids, which is derailing its efforts to supply antiretroviral (ARV) drugs to its targeted number of people living with the virus by the end of the year.
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/ 15 November 2006
Sitting cross-legged on his hospital bed at Yanhee Hospital in Bangkok, South African Neil van der Merwe unwraps a layer of bandages to reveal a six-inch tube inserted into the inner part of his forearm. The contraption is being used to grow a penis, the final step in his transformation from woman to man. ”I wanted to do this a long time ago,” says the 35-year-old, who sports a thin goatee and has lived as a man for five years.
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/ 15 November 2006
The legislative provision for floor crossing — defection by elected national, provincial and local government representatives — was still in place, Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi said on Wednesday. He was responding to a question whether the floor-crossing mechanism would still be in place next September.
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/ 15 November 2006
African leaders have committed themselves to hold each other accountable for the implementation of the much-hailed New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad). However, five years on and questions have started to surface about the effectiveness and viability of the Nepad process.
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/ 14 November 2006
The European Union and South Africa said on Tuesday they had cleared up the last details in the way of long-planned cuts to tariffs on car exports to each other’s markets. The plan was previously agreed and EU countries had now backed its details, an EU official said, adding both sides would seek to implement it by December 1.
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/ 14 November 2006
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) presidential candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba’s coalition on Tuesday rejected results published so far, which showed his rival President Joseph Kabila poised to win a historic election. ”The Union for the Nation will not accept an electoral hold-up that aims to steal the victory from the Congolese people,” the coalition said in a statement.
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/ 14 November 2006
A new women’s magazine will finally bridge the gap between religion and sex — at least for religious Afrikaans women in South Africa. Intiem — meaning ”intimate” — is a new, glossy, A5-size magazine targeting the national religious Afrikaans community that will be launched at the end of November.