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/ 7 November 2007

Violent protests engulf Georgian capital

Georgian police firing rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons fought running battles with anti-government protesters on Wednesday, plunging the ex-Soviet republic’s capital, Tbilisi, into chaos. All day hundreds of riot police in black body armour clashed with demonstrators demanding the resignation of President Mikheil Saakashvili.

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/ 31 October 2007

HIV rate declines in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe has registered a 2,5% decline in the prevalence of HIV to 15,6% of the population, the authorities revealed in Harare on Wednesday. The latest decline is from 18,1% of the population in 2006 to 15,6% this year, or one in every seven people, Health Ministry officials were quoted as saying.

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/ 16 October 2007

NPA: No imminent arrest of Makhanya

Western Cape police and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) on Tuesday scoffed at claims that police are about to arrest Sunday Times editor Mondli Makhanya and deputy managing editor Jocelyn Maker. ”We wish to state that there is no truth in reports that [they] will be arrested and/or be brought before court this week,” NPA spokesperson Tlali Tlali said.

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/ 14 October 2007

Concern over govt vs Sunday Times

Opposition parties and the South African National Editors’ Forum have expressed concern at reports of police plans to arrest Sunday Times editor Mondli Makhanya and journalist Jocelyn Maker over the theft of Health Minister Manto-Tshabalala-Msimang’s medical records.

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/ 7 October 2007

Malawi health service ailing from brain drain

For Malawian nurse Hilda Maganga, the financial pull of a spell in a ward in Britain is close to overwhelming her desire to tend to patients in her Aids-stricken and impoverished homeland. ”I would like to do a two-year stint in the United Kingdom, make my money and come back to retire for good,” says the 54-year-old.

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/ 15 September 2007

Indonesia quake death toll rises

The toll from an earthquake on Indonesia’s Sumatra island this week has risen to 21 dead and 88 injured, while more than 13 000 homes were destroyed or damaged, officials said on Saturday. The 8,4-magnitude quake, which struck off the coast of western Sumatra on Wednesday evening, has been followed by at least 40 big aftershocks.

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/ 10 September 2007

Crisis-hit Zim faces illegal market for Aids drugs

Aids drugs — some of them contaminated, diluted or faked — are being sold at flea markets and hairdressing salons in the face of growing shortages in clinics struggling under Zimbabwe’s economic crisis, the Health Ministry said. State media quoted Minister of Health David Parirenyatwa on Monday as appealing to people living with HIV/Aids to buy their medicines from registered pharmacies.

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/ 29 August 2007

Activists accuse Manto of hampering Aids fight

Embattled Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang was accused by Aids activists on Wednesday of fuelling the country’s HIV crisis by obstructing efforts to combat the disease. A raft of NGOs, including the leading Aids lobby, said the recent sacking of the deputy health minister had raised fears that a widely praised Aids programme was being undermined.