Dar es Salaam- Tanzania (PANA) -- An official of the National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) in Tanzania has expressed optimism over the decline OF HIV/AIDS in some parts of the country. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- Zwelinzima Vavi, General Secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), was part of a delegation of international trade unionists who Thursday discussed the HIV/AIDS crisis with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Full text...

Paris- France (PANA) -- The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) said they hoped to work together to ease the impact of AIDS on rural poverty and insecure livelihoods through joint efforts in promoting sustainable rural development. Full text...

Monrovia- Liberia (PANA) -- Liberian President Charles Taylor has called for the provision of affordable anti-AIDS drugs for sufferers of the disease in Liberia. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- Following the decision by national government on the prevention of mother-to-child HIV/AIDS transmission, the Gauteng provincial government has launched two pilot sites. Full text...

Khartoum- Sudan (PANA) -- An NGO coordinating a network on HIV/AIDS in Sudan has resorted to carnivals and street shows to raise public awareness about the pandemic. Full text...

Inhambane- Mozambique (PANA) -- Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano on Tuesday stressed the need for a careful assessment of the impact of current policies and actions for the struggle against the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- The HIV/AIDS pandemic is Zambia's main threat to sustaining its human resources, says the 1999-2000 UN Development Programme's Human Development report. Full text...

Dar es Salaam- Tanzania (PANA) -- Tanzanian boxers would now have to undergo compulsory HIV/AIDS tests before being allowed to participate in the game, the Tanzania Professional Boxing Commission (TPBC) has ruled. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- Doctors For Life (DFL) is supporting its first day care centre for AIDS orphans in the Etete area of KwaDukuza, north of Durban. Full text...

Kampala- Uganda (PANA) -- Uganda has embarked on a countrywide distribution of anti-retroviral drugs that prolong the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- A meeting of the Gauteng AIDS Council on Thursday encouraged pregnant women to go for voluntary HIV-testing as a way of preventing the possible transmission of the lethal virus to the unborn babies. Full text...

Gaborone- Botswana (PANA) -- Botswana's ranking in the UN Human Development assessment has fallen to its lowest position in 16 years due to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Full text...

Windhoek- Namibia (PANA) -- The newly-elected president of Namibia Network of AIDS Services Organisation (NANASO), Eivalastus Kaaronda, said that people living with HIV/AIDS and those who are not infected with the virus have equal rights. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Plans by the government to import 300 million condoms sparked off a furious debate in Nairobi, with President Daniel arap Moi even suggesting that Kenyans abstain from sex for two years. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Nigeria's federal government Thursday started a two-day training for medical officers selected to administer the anti-retroviral drugs it recently ordered, the News Agency of Nigeria reported. Full text...

Niamey- Niger (PANA) -- For the first time since embarking on the fight against HIV/AIDS in 1996, Niger has released data on the actual situation of the pandemic, sources close to the National Programme on AIDS (PNLS) affirmed Wednesday in Niamey. Full text...

Maputo- Mozambique (PANA) -- The Mozambican government has submitted to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) a project proposal to fight against AIDS in the country's productive sector, according to Labour Minister Mario Sevene. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- South Africa's Minister of Social Development, Zola Skweyiya on Wednesday launched the first local capacity-building training course for government planners on HIV/AIDS in Mafikeng. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- A South African virologist researching on HIV vaccines, Dr Carolyn Williamson, has won a top award at the World Technology Summit in London for her work. Full text...

Lusaka- Zambia (PANA) -- A Chinese professor Tuesday told a press conference in Lusaka, Zambia that he had developed and manufactured a new retroviral drug against the HIV/AIDS. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- The Ethiopian Orthodox Church would remain committed to supporting the national HIV/AIDS prevention and control measures alongside its apostolic mission, Patriarch Abune Paulos has said. Full text...

Dar es Salaam- Tanzania (PANA) -- Tanzanian NGOs fighting against HIV/AIDS have formed an umbrella body, the Tanzania Network of HIV/AIDS Service Organisations (TANASO), to coordinate their campaign against the scourge. Full text...

Windhoek- Namibia (PANA) -- Namibian Deputy Minister of Defence, Victor Simunja said Monday, that HIV/AIDS is threatening security and military establishments in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. Full text...

Windhoek- Namibia (PANA) -- Namibia spent over 37. Full text...

New York- US (PANA) -- The World Bank approved Friday a loan of 90. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Anti-retrovirals, the drugs that make it possible to curb the progress of AIDS, today constitute one of the few weapons Africa has to slow down the advance of a very powerful enemy. Full text...

Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has decided to strengthen its co-operation programme with Benin within the next two years. Full text...

Accra- Ghana (PANA) -- West African Education Ministers will meet in September to adopt a common strategy in combating the spread of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which is also threatening the education sector. Full text...

Tripoli- Libya (PANA) -- Libya has commended an initiative by a US pharmaceutical group, Fayser, to distribute free of charge HIV/AIDS drugs to 50 poor countries. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- Some 150 delegates from 30 African countries and 40 international donors will meet next month in Boksburg, South Africa, to map out strategies to combat the AIDS pandemic in Africa. Full text...

Windhoek- Namibia (PANA) -- You may call it a week of concerted action against HIV/AIDS. Full text...

Maputo- Mozambique (PANA) -- The Mozambican Christian Council which groups the main protestant Christian denominations, has earmarked five million US dollars to finance a five-year strategic plan to combat the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- South Africa's constitutional and technology minister Dr Audrey van Zyl, has added her voice to calls for the imposition of compulsory HIV-tests on sex offenders as soon as possible. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Kenyan authorities said Wednesday that they are organising a stakeholders consultative forum to deliberate on the plight faced by children orphaned by AIDS. Full text...

Cotonou- Benin (PANA) -- Benin plans to allocate some two billion francs CFA (1 US dollar = 750 FCFA) to its national programme on HIV/AIDS, the Health ministry hinted Tuesday. Full text...

Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire (PANA) -- More than a million out of the Ivorian population estimated at 15 million are currently living with HIV/AIDS, according to the country's foreign minister, Abou Drahamane Sangare. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- South Africa's Health minister Molefi Sefularo Tuesday in Zeerust launched a project aimed at preventing the transmission of HIV from mothers to their children. Full text...

Niamey- Niger (PANA) -- Niger Prime Minister Hama Amadou has noted that even at two dollars a day per patient, the government in Niamey cannot meet the expenses required for all AIDS sufferers in the country. Full text...

Lagos- Nigeria (PANA) -- Another Nigerian Church has joined the growing league of local Churches making HIV/AIDS test mandatory for prospective couples seeking marriage. Full text...

Dar es Salaam- Tanzania (PANA) -- In a bid to beef up government efforts to halt the spread of Aids in Tanzania, the country's health experts have launched a two-year advocacy campaign. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- Anti-retrovirals, the drugs that make it possible to curb the progress of AIDS, today constitute one of the few weapons Africa has to slow down the advance of a very powerful enemy. Full text...

Douala- Cameroon (PANA) -- Cameroonians living with HIV/AIDS and who wanted to attend the 25-27 June UN summit on the pandemic were refused visas at the American embassy in Yaounde, medical sources in the Cameroonian capital said. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi has announced plans to review his country's laws to prevent the further spread of HIV/AIDS. Full text...

Kinshasa- DR Congo (PANA) -- Teachers who have died of AIDS in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the past two years have left 27,000 children without instructors, according to an inquiry carried out by "Progres des Nations" magazine, UNICEF publication. Full text...

Addis Ababa- Ethiopia (PANA) -- UNICEF Friday emphasised that because the behaviours which young people lead are key to conquering HIV/AIDS, they have the right to know the facts about the disease so that they can take responsibility for their lives. Full text...

New York- US (PANA) -- Mozambican Health Minister Francisco Songane has said that he expects concrete actions from the just ended special session of the UN General Assembly on HIV/AIDS. Full text...

Dakar- Senegal (PANA) -- President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, a country with an HIV/AIDS prevalence rate under 2 per cent and among the lowest in sub-Saharan Africa, has explained the country's success story against the pandemic on an early awareness and prevention campaign. Full text...

Cape Town- South Africa (PANA) -- South Africa's official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) said the country's fight against AIDS took another step backwards on Wednesday when President Thabo Mbeki again expressed doubts about the existence of the epidemic. Full text...

Nairobi- Kenya (PANA) -- Kenya's Members of Parliament urged the government Thursday to access all dormant bank accounts and use the money to fight the Aids scourge. Full text...