ZIMBABWE MONEY LOSES THREE ZEROS!
Inflation runs at almost 1,200%. Zimbabwe's central bank has announced that three zeros will be taken off every banknote to help consumers deal with inflation of almost 1,200%. Central bank governor Gideon Gono said Zimbabweans had three weeks to exchange existing banknotes for a new series being issued from this Tuesday.
Mr Gono said people had experienced enormous inconvenience because of banknotes with too many zeros. Mr Gono also announced what amounted to a 60% devaluation of the currency. The new official exchange rate will be 250 Zimbabwe dollars - 250,000 of the old Zimbabwe dollars - to the US dollar, as opposed to the previous rate of 101,000 to one.
However, foreign currency fetches at least four times this amount on the parallel market. Economists said the removal of zeroes in itself did not amount to a revaluation, but was simply aimed at making it easier for people handling increasingly unwieldy wads of banknotes as inflation soars. Zimbabwe has been issuing so-called bearer cheques in recent months, with increasingly high face values.
Notes to the value of 50,000 and then 100,000 Zimbabwe dollars have appeared since the beginning of the year. The bills are known as bearer cheques since they are promissory notes rather than official legal tender, but are used in Zimbabwe in the same way as money.
The government has announced a National Economic Development Priority Programme (NEDPP) in order to deal with the economic problems. Zimbabwe is suffering from shortages of food, fuel and foreign currency. In April, inflation passed 1,000% per annum for the first time.
President Robert Mugabe blames domestic and foreign enemies for the problems, while his critics point to the collapse of agricultural exports following a controversial land reform programme.
The country is struggling to pay civil servants and is thought to owe money to neighbours such as South Africa and Mozambique from whom it has been importing electricity and fuel.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
KONY SENDS SON TO PEACE TALKS!
The talks are taking place on the Uganda-Sudan border. Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebel leader Joseph Kony failed to appear at peace talks on Sunday. Instead he sent his 14-year-old son, Salim Saleh Kony, to appease mediators. The teenager, wearing black gumboots and a red t-shirt, was accompanied by about 20 rebels and did not deliver any message to the delegation.
The talks, being held in a clearing on the DR Congo-Sudan border, are aimed at ending a 20-year conflict in which the LRA has killed and maimed thousands. Ugandan elders and church leaders and southern Sudanese mediators expecting the elusive rebel leader were told by LRA spokesman, Obonyo Olweny, via satellite telephone that Mr Kony would arrive on Monday.
Rain was blamed for the delay. Southern Sudanese Vice-President Riek Machar, hosting the talks, said he was confident that Mr Kony would attend during the week. "They are still composing a position, which is good for the peace process and widens the base for peace talks," Mr Machar said. Mr Kony, citing security concerns, had been refusing to attend the talks personally.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has offered an amnesty to the LRA leaders if they agree to give up their weapons.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
JUDGE POSTPONES ZUMA GRAFT CASE!
Mr Zuma has not given up his presidential ambitions. The corruption trial of South African ex-Deputy President Jacob Zuma has been postponed to 5 September. On Monday, his lawyers asked to have the case withdrawn, while the state wants time for further investigation.
Judge Herbert Msimang said the state must submit its response to the defence request by 14 August. After that he will rule whether the case may proceed.
Mr Zuma has denied any wrongdoing and suggested there could be a political conspiracy to discredit him. Hundreds of singing supporters thronged the court in Pietermartizburg as Mr Zuma arrived.
The case could determine the political future of a man who remains one of South Africa's most popular politicians. Earlier this year, Mr Zuma was acquitted on a charge of rape in a separate trial.
He was sacked from the government more than a year ago when his financial adviser Schabir Shaik was found guilty of corruption. The judge said there had been a generally corrupt relationship between Mr Shaik and Mr Zuma, and evidence led in Mr Shaik's trial prompted the National Prosecuting Authority to start investigating charges against Mr Zuma. He first appeared in connection with the corruption allegations in the Durban magistrate's court in October.
Lawyers for Mr Zuma and his co-accused - an arms company called Thint - are expected to argue that the delays so far have been unreasonable and that the charges should therefore be dropped.
BBC southern Africa correspondent Peter Biles says Mr Zuma has not given up his presidential ambitions in spite of the damage to his reputation stemming from these allegations of corruption, and the earlier rape trial.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
KEY UGANDA REBEL ATTENDS TALKS!
Vincent Otti has been indicted by the International Criminal Court.
The deputy leader of Uganda's rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), Vincent Otti, has attended peace talks in a clearing on the DR Congo-Sudan border. The talks are aimed at persuading rebel leaders to end 20 years of conflict.
Mr Otti is among LRA leaders indicted by the International Criminal Court over their bloody campaign, which has cost thousands of civilian lives.
Ugandan elders and church leaders and southern Sudan are expected to meet the LRA head, Joseph Kony, on Sunday. Both he and Mr Otti declined to attend earlier talks in Juba in southern Sudan because of security concerns. Kony's wives attend.
At Saturday's talks, mediators from southern Sudan accompanied Ugandan community leaders and relatives of the rebels to the meeting place - a remote jungle clearing in southern Sudan now shared by more than 100 elders, rebels, soldiers and journalists.
The aim of this trip is to convince rebel leaders to leave the safety of their jungle hideout and come to the next round of talks in Juba, says the BBC's Jonah Fisher in Sudan.
Four of Joseph Kony's wives have been brought to him on this trip - the latest in a series of efforts to persuade Mr Kony that now is the time to make peace, our correspondent says.
Two months ago, southern Sudan presented him with $20,000 in cash.
The Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni, has offered an amnesty to the LRA leaders if they agree to give up their weapons.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
AFRICAN ELEPHANTS HATE THE HILLS!
African elephants hate the hills. - By Louisa Cheung.
The elephants prefer flat ground. African elephants hate climbing hills because it is too costly in terms of energy, a study suggests.
An international team used global positioning system (GPS) satellite tracking to follow the movements of savannah elephants. They found that the animals rarely visited high ground and scientists think this is due to the energy they must expend to climb the slopes.
The research could have important implications for conservation. "[Elephants] probably take a rather different view of their surroundings than more lightweight animals", the scientists write in the journal Current Biology.
African savannah elephants (Loxodonta africana) weigh about four tonnes and consume 42kg (90lbs) vegetation per day, including bark, fruit, grass and leaves. They normally forage for 16-18 hours each day.
Roughly 5,400 wild elephants live in the Samburu, Isiolo and Laikipia districts of northern Kenya. The habitat studied by the researchers covered around 32,000 sq km (12,400 sq miles).
Zoologists put GPS collars around the animals' necks to track their movements. The collar reported an animal's location every three hours.
Scientists found the elephants roamed over just 75% of the habitat. To move around their ranges, these giant herbivores used a network of "corridors" that avoided hilly ground.
"At an incline of five degrees, there were approximately half the number of [elephants] recorded per sq km as there were at a zero-degree incline," co-author Iain Douglas-Hamilton, a chief executive of Save The Elephants, told the BBC News website
A 4,000kg (8,800lbs) elephant would need an extra 25,000 calories of energy for every vertical metre climbed - about 2,500% the cost of level walking.
This means the elephants would need to boost their calorie consumption to walk uphill - requiring them to find much more food to eat.
The elephants were fitted with GPS collars . "Climbing is something that an elephant should not do lightly," said the zoologists. "The higher slopes tend to be forested. There are reasons for elephants to want to go up there," added Dr Douglas-Hamilton.
"It is possible that these energetically costly forays are made to seek out vegetation or minerals that can only be found at higher elevations or on steeper terrain."
One elephant in Kenya, nicknamed "Icy Mike" lived and died on Mount Kenya, 4.4km (14,000ft) above sea level. Dr Douglas-Hamilton said this unusual behaviour needed further research to understand.
"Actually climbing down also requires quite a bit of energy for braking," he said. "What the elephant cannot do is to go up and down and engage in a costly energy-burning exercise."
The savannah elephants are listed as "Vulnerable" according to the internationally recognised Red List.
By understanding the animals' behaviour and preferences, scientists can help minimise the adverse impact of humans on the elephants.
"What we are aiming to do is to reach a state in which human beings and elephants can live in harmony," said Dr Douglas-Hamilton.
"The question is how to find enough space for both human and elephants. We can only do that by a very careful understanding of how the elephants take decisions and what they need."
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Dear Family and Friends,
Parliament re-opened on Tuesday this week but all
attempts to watch the full event on state run TV were in vain. There was a
power cut just a few minutes after the special repeat broadcast began and
the night went dark and quiet - again. Those few brief minutes however had
been more than enough to raise eyebrows. A number of "cultural reforms"
have been undertaken by Zimbabwe's parliament which now resembles a safari
lodge. A stuffed leopard and two antelope heads hang on the walls and a
leopard skin adorns the ceremonial chair used by Mr Mugabe. Two enormous
elephant tusks now frame the Presidential chair and it was between these
two great teeth that Mr Mugabe stood to address the House. Near him sat
Mrs Mugabe on a high backed green leather chair which had been carefully
placed on a striking zebra skin. Hardly had these images registered and
before the speech began, the electricity went off.
The images of our leaders sitting amongst elephants and kudu, zebra and
leopard are particularly ironic now as the country plunges back in time
and people ravage the environment in order to survive.Our lavishly
decorated safari parliament is about as far away from the reality of life
in Zimbabwe as you can possibly imagine.
Every morning the sound in urban and rural Zimbabwe is that of wood
chopping. All day every day you see lines of women walking with bundles of
great long tree branches balanced on their heads and men with hand carts
and wheel barrows piled high with newly chopped indigenous wood. All day,
every day and in every direction you see smoke. Some is from urban
householders cooking outside on open fires. More is from incessant
uncontrolled fires streaming across the horizon, consuming everything in
their path. Seeing the massive amount of wood collecting and looking at
horizons permanently smudged with smoke, you cannot help but wonder how
Zimbabwe's wildlife can possibly survive this unrelenting attack on the
environment. Grass for grazers is reduced to ash, leaves for browsers is
burnt out and trees for shade, shelter and habitat are felled. Undoubtedly
the abundance and variety of birds, reptiles, mammals and insects is under
severe threat as the assault on our envirnoment continues unchecked.
The reality of life in Zimbabwe has been shocking in the last week. In my
home area the electricity was cut for over 29 working hours during the
week. The price of a loaf of bread shot up from one to two hundred
thousand dollars overnight. The foreign currency rate soared on the black
market with one British Pound selling for one million Zimbabwe dollars.
Appreciating cultural reforms of elephant tusks and leopard skins is a
world away from bread we can't afford, bills we can't pay and hours and
hours on end when we cannot work or conduct our business as the
electricity is off. Reality in Zimbabwe draws ever further away. Until
next week, thanks for reading, love cathy
29 July 2006 Copyright cathy buckle
http://africantears.netfirms.com My books "African Tears" and
"Beyond Tears" are available from: orders@africabookcentre.com ;
www.africabookcentre.com
DR CONGO MILITIAS DISARM AHEAD OF POLLS
DR Congo militias disarm ahead of polls.
By Karen Allen - BBC News, DR Congo.
With the first free elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo due on Sunday, UN peacekeepers have been disarming the militias responsible for continuing insecurity in the east of the country, despite a peace deal more than three years ago.
The UN's aim is to permanently remove weapons from circulation So far in the eastern part of the DR Congo, 20,000 rebels have handed their weapons in. But it is impossible to judge exactly how many more remain. This is a country with porous borders and with the cost of an AK-47 just $10, weapons are easy to get hold of.
Kalashnikovs, machine guns and rifles are stacked in huge containers at a UN compound in Goma, where the focus of the operation is to disarm foreign militia. After the genocide in neighbouring Rwanda, the Hutu FDLR fled across the border installing themselves in the dense forest of north Kivu. Now a major operation to coax them out of hiding is under way - part of a repatriation programme brokered with the Rwandan government.
Marche, at 38, is a former FDLR rebel preparing to go home. After nine years in the forest he travels light. All he has to his name is a packet of biscuits and bundle of cloth containing his clothes. Ultimately it was his failing health that convinced him to turn his weapon in. "I'm ready to go home. I'm sick and in the bush you can't get medicine. I know there are now good people in my country so I am no longer frightened to go back."
Similar operations are being mounted further north in the province of Ituri, where a confusing array of Congolese rebel groups continue to clash with the army. Hundreds of thousands of arms have so far been handed in.This is not about political ideology, but a share of the region's vast mineral wealth. Ituri has some of the country's richest deposits of gold, a factor that has inflamed tensions in the region.
At a transit camp near the town of Bunia, hundreds of young men, most of them teenage boys, are being "processed" back into the community. With them are their dependants. Many of them have young wives and children. In return for turning their backs on the militia, they are given food, medicine and around $400 to start up a business and get back on their feet.
But critics say the process has become painfully slow and open to abuse. Yet William Swing, who heads up Monuc, the UN's peacekeeping force in the DR Congo, says the rebels have every incentive to disarm now: "The elections are coming - they understand all bets are off. This is an opportunity to go into civilian life. Some, perhaps, will be accepted into the Congolese army."
An eleventh-hour deal with the main militia groups in Ituri, brokered by the UN just days before polling day, could help accelerate the disarmament process.
But elections bring with them huge expectations, and unless the government is quick to deliver and show some tangible improvements to people's lives, there is a danger many could re-arm.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
RIOTS AS SOMALI MINISTER KILLED
Riots as Somali minister killed
The plane that landed in Mogadishu is thought to have carried arms.
Riots have broken out in the Somali town of Baidoa after a minister in the transitional government was shot dead.
Minister Abdallah Isaaq Deerow was killed outside a mosque in Baidoa, where the government is based.
On Thursday, at least 19 members of the transitional government - which controls only a small area - resigned.
In another development, a second cargo plane has landed in Mogadishu, fuelling allegations that the Islamic forces who control the city are receiving arms.
Mr Deerow, minister of constitutional affairs, was killed after Friday prayers at the mosque.
Later on Friday, hundreds of people took to the streets of Baidoa in protest at his killing, burning tyres and looting shops.
Mr Deerow was not among the group of ministers who resigned on Thursday.
The resignations were prompted by some ministers' dissatisfaction that Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Ghedi had failed to make progress in talks with the Union of Islamic Courts, which controls Mogadishu.
Public Works Minister Osman Ali Atto said he came back from the capital to the government's base with an agreement from the Islamic courts that fresh talks be held.
But he said that Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Ghedi was "an obstacle to progress" and had refused to listen.
Some MPs are planning a motion of no confidence in the government.
They are opposed to the deployment of foreign peacekeepers and the presence of Ethiopian troops who are in Baidoa with the blessing of the transitional goverment.
More resignations are expected and observers say that the transitional government is looking increasingly fragile.
President Abdullahi Yusuf's government has little influence outside its base in Baidoa, but has the diplomatic support of the United Nations and the African Union (AU) and the strong backing of neighbouring Ethiopia.
Many Somalis, including the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) which controls much of southern Somalia, are opposed to the presence of Ethiopian troops on Somali soil.
The arrival of a second flight at Mogadishu airport amid strict security has fuelled speculation that the Islamists are receiving weapons in violation of a UN arms embargo.
According to witnesses, the aircraft that touched down in Mogadishu was an Iluyshin-76 - a massive transport plane capable of carrying more than 50 tons of cargo.
Troops loyal to the Union of Islamic Courts in control of the capital chased away onlookers, although at least six trucks were seen loading cargo from the aircraft.
The plane is the same one that touched down in Mogadishu on Wednesday and credible sources said that flight originated in Eritrea carrying anti-aircraft guns, uniforms, AK47s and several senior Eritrean officers.
Both Eritrea and the Mogadishu authorities have denied the claim.
The flights have raised fears amongst security sources and diplomats that the rivals in Somalia are now preparing for open conflict, the BBC's Peter Greste reports from Nairobi.
Both Ethiopia and Eritrea have been warned not to interfere in neighbouring Somalia by the United Nations and United States.
There are fears that Somalia could end up a battleground between Ethiopia and Eritrea - who fought a two-year border war between 1998 and 2000.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
ZIMBABWE FUELLING HIV SPREAD!
The destruction of townships left many HIV sufferers homeless. A human rights group says the "abusive policies" of the Zimbabwean government are fuelling the HIV/Aids epidemic. Human Rights Watch says despite a recent drop in infection rates, 20% of the population had HIV with thousands dying each week.
They say current policies, including forced evictions and expensive health care, were squandering progress in the fight against the disease.
The Zimbabwean government has not yet responded to the report. "Zimbabwe has been hailed as a 'success story' in the fight against Aids," said Joe Amon, director of the HIV/Aids programme at Human Rights Watch. "But abusive government policies are blocking treatment for those who desperately need it and making even more people vulnerable to infection."
The New York based rights group said up to 1.6 million people in Zimbabwe were living with HIV but only 25,000 of the 350,000 people in immediate need of antiretroviral drugs had access to treatment. They claimed forced evictions had left HIV sufferers living in appalling conditions and had also interfered with prevention measures.
Police are alleged to have destroyed nearly 2,000 outlets providing condoms in urban townships during demolition programs, which took place last year.
The report also claimed that non-government groups attempting to fight the disease, which kills more than 3,000 people a week, were harassed and intimidated by government officials.
Human Rights Watch called on the international donor community - which has withdrawn large amounts of assistance because of the government's poor human rights record - to increase funding for HIV/Aids programs.
In a speech opening parliament, President Robert Mugabe touched on the issue of HIV, saying new legislation was needed to stop domestic violence and "retrogressive traditional practices" such as marriage of girls, which ran "counter to prevent the spread of HIV and Aids epidemic".
He also said a shortage of antiretroviral drugs to treat HIV would be alleviated with the establishment of a new local drug manufacturer.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
MALAWI EX-LEADER ON GRAFT CHARGES!
Mr Muluzi has fallen out with his successor as president. Malawi's former President Bakili Muluzi has been released on bail after being charged with corruption and fraud. After his arrest on Thursday morning, he was questioned by anti-corruption agents about financial transactions during his time in power.
A spokesman for Mr Muluzi's United Democratic Front (UDF) party said the move did not come as a surprise, and called it "political persecution". Mr Muluzi fell out with his successor Bingu wa Mutharika after polls in 2004.
Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Director Gustave Kaliwo told a press conference that the former president was being charged with 42 counts of corruption, fraud and theft.
He said that some of the allegations related to donor money that had ended up in Mr Muluzi's personal account during his time in office. "These are allegations we are making; Dr Muluzi should be perceived innocent until proven otherwise," he said.
Mr Muluzi's lawyer told journalists that the former president had remained silent during his one-and-a-half hour interrogation. "We would rather the former president make full explanation to the nation in court and we are very confident he will be found very, very innocent," Fahad Assani said.
The BBC's Raphael Tenthani in Blantyre says Mr Muluzi looked unshaken by his experience. Bingu wa Mutharika felt a backlash from his anti-graft drive .Donning a black suit and flanked by political allies, he came out the ACB's offices smiling broadly to his chanting supporters, our correspondent says.
Earlier, there was commotion in parliament when MPs heard about Mr Muluzi's arrest. The speaker, unable to control the situation, suspended the session in which MPs are already at loggerheads over the budget that should have been agreed last month. The UDF's publicity secretary Sam Mpasu said the development was "a continuation of political persecution".
Mr Muluzi stepped down as president after serving two terms in office in 2004. He hand-picked Mr Mutharika to run for president on the UDF ticket. But eight months after his victory, the new president resigned from the UDF over what he says was hostility to his anti-corruption campaign.
In April, Vice-President Cassim Chilumpha, who is close to Mr Muluzi, was arrested and charged with treason. He is on bail under strict conditions and may not leave his house without permission from the president.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
MYSTERY OF STRANDED AIRPORT BOY!
Mystery of stranded airport boy
By Waliur Rahman - BBC News, Dhaka.
The circumstances of the boy's arrival are still being clarified. A Bangladeshi court has handed over an 11-year-old Nigerian boy to a charity after he was apparently deserted at the country's international airport. Efforts by the authorities to locate the boy's guardians or parents have not so far been successful.
Aloysius Abacha told immigration officers at the airport that he arrived in the country on Sunday with his aunt while they were in transit to London. But police say that they have failed to trace any such woman. The boy was discovered at the arrival lounge of the busy airport by security guards, who handed him over to immigration officers. Immigration officer Muntasirul Islam quoted him as saying that his aunt's name was Rosemary. The boy told the officers that he was going with her to London because his parents lived there.
"But we checked our CCTV footage which suggested that he came to the arrival lounge alone," Mr Islam told the BBC. "The passenger lists of the flights that landed at the airport on that day included no such names. "We have no clue as to how he came to Bangladesh. Everything surrounding him remains a mystery to us," he said.
The court in Dhaka said that the boy was being handed over to the Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association (BNWLA) with the aim of keeping him in safe custody. "The condition of the boy seems to be alright, although he is a bit mentally traumatised because he knows no one in a foreign land," BNWLA spokeswoman Salma Ali said. She said that while the circumstances of the boy's arrival in Dhaka were still being clarified, he was being treated as a "victim" and would be sympathetically dealt with.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
ANOTHER FOOD CRISIS TO HIT NIGER!
Many in Niger have run out of money to buy food.
The food situation in Niger is deteriorating once more, just a year after it was struck by a devastating drought, warn aid agencies.
Rains have begun late and many families borrowed so heavily last year they cannot ask for further credit from the traders they normally rely on.
The aid agency Oxfam says it has already seen families reduced to eating leaves from trees, just to get by.
The UN says the 1.5m people it feeds will more than double in a few weeks.
By September, 25% of Niger's 12m people will be receiving food aid, the World Food Programme predicts.
Oxfam's Lauren Gelfand, who has been travelling through the area, says she is concerned because the rainy season was poor and the next harvest is not expected for two months.
"There are people who have had to sow their seeds for a second time because there were no rains. There is definitely a danger that things could be bad this year," she said.
An extensive monitoring system is in place, and 900 feeding centres are in operation.
But BBC Africa analyst Martin Plaut says there is a real danger that many in Niger are becoming dependent on annual food distributions, as the desert claims more and more of the arid country.
Food emergencies in Africa have almost tripled in the last two decades and the developed world needs to review its approach to aid, says Oxfam.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
CHAD AND SUDAN UNITE OVER REBELS
Chad and Sudan unite over rebels.
Rebel attacks have forced refugees to flee across borders in the region.
Chad and Sudan have signed a deal agreeing not to host each other's rebel groups on their territory.
The two countries have not resumed diplomatic relations, but have agreed to respect previous accords.
Chad cut off ties with its neighbour in April after repelling a rebel attack on the Chadian capital, N'Djamena.
The accord calls for a joint military commission to monitor the long border, but a BBC correspondent says it is not clear if rebels will be allowed home.
The BBC's Stephanie Hancock in Chad says at some 1,000km long, the border will be hard to monitor.
After the signing of the accord in N'Djamena, representatives said both countries had overcome their differences and were "turning over a new page" in their relations.
Chad hosts some 200,000 Sudanese, who fled there from the fighting in Sudan's region of Darfur over the last three and a half years.
Tensions mounted between the neighbours in late 2005 when Chad accused Sudan of arming and financing rebels in the east.
In turn, Sudan has accused Chad of supporting the Darfur rebel groups, many of whom are down from the same ethnic Zagawa group as Chad's President Idriss Deby.
An estimated 50,000 Chadians have also fled their homes near the border, AP news agency reports.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
HIV-POSITIVE ZIMBABWEANS FIND LOVE!
HIV-positive Zimbabweans find love.
By Steve Vickers BBC, Harare.
Being HIV-positive does not mean being celibate, says Luta. A dating service for HIV-positive people in Zimbabwe has made a successful start with its first couples having been matched up. The agency, called Hapana, was launched two months ago and is challenging attitudes that society holds towards those living with the virus. About one in five Zimbabweans is infected, the United Nations says. One of the highest rates in the world.
One common perception is that single people who are HIV positive should no longer be involved in sexual relationships. "There's an unspoken expectation that if you're single and you test positive, you're supposed to become celibate," the founder of the agency, Luta Shaba, told the BBC News website. "I believe it's contributing to continued infection, because if you know that disclosing your status will cause the other person to leave you, the chances are that you won't disclose.
"A lot of people have shown interest in what I'm doing and my clients have made it very clear that they are happy that someone has started this service."
Highly publicised campaigns have been running over the past five years to encourage people to undertake HIV tests, in order to control the spread of the virus. You really have to deal with the reality of HIV and Aids at midnight on Valentine's Day. - Luta Shaba.
Mary: An Aids widow's story
But there have been some unanswered questions as to how those who test positive should continue their lives. "It's almost like an us and them, there's an assumption that you're negative, so go and get tested so that you can keep yourself safe from those positive people," said Shaba. "I challenged the last date that I had who left me when I disclosed my status. "I asked him whether he would have been comfortable having sexual relations with me using a condom, had I not disclosed. "He said yes, he would have, so I asked him what the difference is in using a condom to prevent HIV transmission when you know the person's status."
Besides the use of anti-retroviral drugs, a positive mental outlook and enjoyment of life is an important factor in extending the lifespan of a person who has the virus. Shaba believes that loneliness and isolation makes it more difficult for people to live healthily with HIV. "There's a perception that HIV-positive people are lethal, so there's a fear of being intimate with them," said Shaba "I can be on ARVs and be part of a support group, but you really have to deal with the reality of HIV and Aids at midnight on Valentine's Day. "That's when I've seen everybody receiving flowers and I know I can't receive flowers because I'm HIV-positive because nobody wants to be with me.
"So I'm saying we don't have to be alone, let's be honest with each other that we need to be in relationships, and let's give each other companionship. "But it doesn't mean that people who are dating when positive should be careless." Unprotected sex can lead to the re-infection of someone who is HIV-positive, which could quicken the onset of fully-blown Aids.
HIV/Aids in Zimbabwe
2002: 26% HIV prevalence
2004: 21% HIV prevalence
Change attributed to change in sexual behaviour
Reduction in reported number of sexual partners
86% of men report condom use in casual partnerships
83% of women report condom use in casual partnerships
Source: UNAids
Dating agencies have not proved to be popular in Zimbabwe, but Shaba believes that they can work well for those with HIV. "I think that dating services will be useful for HIV-positive people," she said. "You can be introduced to dozens of people who all find you absolutely attractive, but it's that one factor that stops everything in its tracks."
The dating service takes its name from a popular song by Tanga Wekwa Sando, Hapana Asina Wake, meaning there is no-one without that special someone in their life. "It's very pertinent, the risk of giving up and telling yourself that no-one will ever love me is real. "So we need to say we are beautiful people, we are alive, and each living being is entitled to a mate and nobody should be sentenced to a lifetime of total solitude. "Considering the way people are so conservative here and the social issues around HIV I am enthused at the start that the agency has made.
"If I can pair up just 10 people a month and they spend time together at the weekend or go for coffee, then I'd be the happiest woman around." Shaba has also written a book, Secrets of a Woman's Soul, which tells of her relationship with her mother, who died of an Aids-related disease. She hopes to send girls orphaned by Aids to university with funds raised from the book.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Boom time for S Africa townships
By Mahlatse Gallens -BBC News, Soweto.
Tourism is expected to increase as the World Cup approaches. Thirteen years ago, Evodia Mabaxa bought a house for the equivalent of about $10,000. Today she is smiling all the way to the bank - she has sold her starter home in Soweto's Protea Glen neighbourhood for almost four and a half times that amount. Evodia earns a living by doing her neighbour's laundry, and her husband works at the local hospital. They are among the families who have managed to ride the property boom that is sweeping through South Africa's townships - apartheid's black residential areas, which were once associated with uniform poverty.
I usually get calls from white people who want to have a home in Soweto - Mayibongwe Ntsele, estate agent "I never thought I'd have a house of my own," she says. "We used to move around in Soweto, hiring rooms - actually we used to live in a garage." The home that Evodia has just sold is a modest two bedroom detached house. It might not have a white picket fence but it certainly has a beautiful garden with rose bushes. "After I said to people that I'm selling my house, before I even advertised it, people were flocking in wanting to buy the house and people were even giving me their own prices," she says.
In the past few years, Soweto has received a major makeover. Almost all the streets have been tarred and shopping malls are springing up. It will soon have its first four star hotel and upmarket shopping mall. New houses are being snapped up. This has seen some houses in the upmarket sections of the suburbs selling at over a million rand ($140,000).
On the streets of Soweto, children still happily play in the streets and everyone knows their neighbours. Estate agent Mayibongwe Ntsele says these are pull factors, as people want to leave the quiet lifestyle of the historically white suburbs with their high fences. The arrival of democracy in South Africa saw township dwellers flocking to the suburbs where black people had previously been barred by segregation laws. But today things are changing. Black people are moving back, and even some white people are taking an interest, according to Mr Ntsele. "I usually get calls from white people who want to have a home in Soweto to stay, because they experience the lifestyle of the black people not just that cold life style. Soweto will be a suburb on its own," he says.
Soweto residents are also hopeful that the 2010 World Cup will be another opportunity to increase their properties' values. Shopping malls are a new feature of Soweto. The final game of the Cup is already set for Soweto. Evodia Mabaxa has bought a bigger house in the tourist hub section of the township. The seven-room house came with a $56,000 price tag but she plans to make the property work for her. "Bed and breakfast, local food for people - I'll be doing something to attract the foreigners," she says. The property boom does not affect only Soweto, but also townships in South Africa's other main cities.
A recent survey by a leading bank found that for every township home put up for sale, there are seven potential buyers in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. It also found that 96% of the township homes are selling at their asking price compared with 60% on average in the formerly white suburbs. Tracy French of home loan company Mortgage SA says developers are battling to keep up with demand. "There is definitely a lot of confidence in the market - the laws have made buying property affordable and demand is keeping the market alive," she says.
The boom has even seen white property companies moving into the township to get a share of the cake and banks are now offering home loans for the less affluent households. Estate agents expect the property boom to continue for a long while, as Soweto transforms itself from just a large dormitory providing labour for Johannesburg to a potentially affluent city in its own right.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
ELECTION BOOT FOR KENYA LEADER!
Election boost for Kenyan leader.
Trouble has stalked Mr Kibaki's administration. The party backed by Kenya's president has won three of the five by-elections contested in the north-east. Narc-Kenya is a new party formed after the coalition that brought President Mwai Kibaki to power in 2002 crumbled last year. The seats fell vacant after five MPS died in a plane crash three months ago. Analysts viewed the results as key to gauging Mr Kibaki's popularity ahead of general elections next year.
Kanu had previously held four out of the five seats.
BY-ELECTION RESULTS
Nakuru: Narc-Kenya; previously Narc coalition
North Horr: Narc-Kenya; previously Kanu
Saku: Narc-Kenya; previously Kanu
Laisamis: held by Kanu
Moyale: held by Kanu
The BBC's Josphat Makori in Nairobi says that although Narc-Kenya gained three seats, the government spent a lot of money on its campaign effort. Mr Kibaki and other cabinet ministers personally campaigned for Narc-Kenya, he said.
Our correspondent says three of the seats were won by relatives of the MPs who died in April. They had been travelling to the region in northern Kenya to mediate in a bloody feud between rival communities near Ethiopia's border when their plane crashed. When Mr Kibaki was elected he promised to change Kenya after 40 years of one-party rule.
But he has been criticised by donor nations for not doing enough to tackle corruption.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
TANSANIA POLICE SEEK SNOOKER BAN!
Police say the games are encouraging crime. Tanzanian police say they will close down pool and snooker halls in Dar es Salaam during the day as part of an efforts to clamp down on petty crime. A police statement said the halls had become meeting places for those who carry out muggings and house robberies. The police said playing pool and snooker all day was preventing jobless youths from finding useful work.
But a BBC correspondent in the city says there is no law that would allow the police to impose such a ban. The games have been popularised by the South African brewers whose products have made inroads into the Tanzanian market, the BBC's John Ngahyoma says. The breweries have supplied pool and snooker tables to pubs in an effort to get drinkers to stay there longer.
In one popular Dar es Salaam pool hall, opinions were divided on the proposed ban. "People here are playing for fun - not causing violence or anything," said one player. But another man approved of the idea. "So many people are used to playing during working hours and this is not good for the economy," he told our correspondent.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
TWO DEAD ON CANARIES MIGRANT BOAT!
Hundreds of migrants arrived in the Canaries at the weekend.Two people have been found dead aboard a small boat that arrived in Spain's Canary Islands carrying 48 immigrants. The boat from Africa was spotted by a merchant ship early on Monday. Many of the illegal immigrants have been transported to local hospitals. Meanwhile, another boat carrying more than 30 illegal immigrants has landed on Spain's mainland, in the southern province of Almeria.
Spain and Malta are struggling to cope with an influx of migrants from Africa. The European Union's Council of Ministers is preparing to discuss the issue in Brussels. EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini is expected to report on plans to send rapid reaction border guard teams to countries facing a migration crisis. The ministers' meeting follows another migration dilemma last week, when more than 40 people spent a week stranded on a fishing boat after Malta's authorities refused to allow them to disembark.
On Friday and Saturday, the Spanish authorities intercepted four boats carrying almost 250 migrants trying to reach the Canary Islands from the west African coast. So far this year, about 11,000 illegal migrants have reached the Canaries - well above the number of arrivals for the whole of last year. Once intercepted, the migrants are kept at holding centres. The Spanish authorities then have 40 days to return them to their home countries or release them.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Guinea's ban on beauty contests
By James Copnall - BBC News, Conakry.
It is not fair that Guinea has no contest, says Housseinatou Diallo.
Housseinatou Diallo is 19, well spoken, attractive, and has a definite ambition in life. "I am beautiful, and I would like to be Miss Guinea," she says. Miss Diallo has already finished second in a competition to choose the most beautiful schoolgirl in the Guinean capital, Conakry. But her chances of achieving her objective are as slim as her waistline.
It has been nearly two decades since a woman has been able to call herself Miss Guinea - the most beautiful woman in Guinea.
So what happened to the last Miss?
She caught the eye of the country's first man, President Lansana Conte, who swiftly made her his second wife. "Since then there has not been a Miss Guinea contest," explains N'Foly Fofana, a cultural promoter.
"Rumour has it that the president doesn't want another woman becoming Miss Guinea after his wife. "It is just rumour, but personally in Guinea I put a lot of faith in rumours." Mr Fofana isn't the only one to have heard that version of the facts. "President Conte doesn't want anyone showing old footage of his wife in revealing clothes during the Miss competition," says Ibrahima, a taxi driver, with a knowing smile. "As long as he is alive, there will not be another Miss Guinea."
Guinea does send representatives to African beauty competitions, but they are not chosen from a full national competition under the title Miss Guinea. Housseinatou Diallo, for one, finds it difficult to accept the situation. "It is unjust, it is not fair," she moans.
"There are competitions everywhere else in Africa, but not here, even though there are many beautiful women in Guinea." N'Foly is now thinking of organising a competition for ugly people N'Foly Fofana would like to organise a Miss Guinea competition - but for the moment he is not sure if he will be able to use that name. So he has come up with another idea: a competition to find Guinea's ugliest person.
"Each competitor will get 100,000 Guinean francs (about $20) to encourage them to participate, and I think we will have lots of entrants.
"After all, why should ugly people be left out?"
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Is Somalia next for 'war on terror'?
By Joseph Winter - BBC News.
The Islamists are the first group to control Mogadishu in 15 years. Since the 11 September attacks on the United States more than four years ago, Somalis have feared that their lawless country could become the setting for a battle between US-backed anti-terror forces and al-Qaeda sympathisers.
That prospect now seems more likely than ever.
An Islamist militia has taken control of the capital, Mogadishu, from an alliance of warlords widely believed to be backed by the US.
The US refuses to confirm or deny these reports but President George W Bush says he is concerned by the Union of Islamic Courts' victory. "The first concern, of course, is to make sure that Somalia does not become an al-Qaeda safe haven - it doesn't become a place from which terrorists can plot and plan," he said.
The union's chairman, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, has given conflicting signals since taking control in Mogadishu. He sent a letter to foreign diplomats claiming that his followers do not sponsor terrorism and they have no plans to establish an Islamic state in Somalia. But he has also been quoted as telling the Saudi-owned pan-Arabic daily Asharq al-Awsat:
"If US forces intervene directly against us in Mogadishu, then we are ready to teach them a lesson they will never forget and repeat their defeat in 1993." He was referring to the US humiliation in 1993, when 18 US troops and hundreds of Somalis were killed before the US pulled out its forces.
Fresh from defeating the hated warlords who have razed Mogadishu to the ground in 15 years of fighting, the Islamic courts are very popular in the capital. The US is still mistrusted because of its 1993 debacle and its self-proclaimed "war on terror". Reports that they were funding the warlords have not helped either side win over Somali popular opinion.
Some Somalis back the Islamic Courts for doing something to establish law and order in a country where the law of the gun has long held sway. But the warlords, and others, say the Islamists are also behind a series of targeted assassinations of prominent figures, including a peace activist and senior military officials. Many of the Somalis killed are those who had argued in favour of a foreign peacekeeping force in Somalia - an idea strongly rejected by the Islamists.
The warlords further accuse the courts of sheltering foreign Islamic fighters.
Western diplomats have long said that Somalia was home to training camps for Islamic radiA Somali link has been assumed in the four al-Qaeda-linked attacks in East Africa - the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the 2002 attacks on Israeli tourists in Kenya. In a country without a government, a group with enough money can do just about anything it wants.
Weapons are easily available in Mogadishu's arms bazaar and anyone can buy a passport, although these are no longer recognised in the west. One of the key figures in the Islamic courts and former al-Itihaad al-Islamiya leader, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys - on the US list of terror suspects - denies the existence of training camps in Somalia.
But he told the BBC News website he has sympathy for the "Muhajadeen who are fighting back" against attacks by the US and their allies around the world.
Last year the International Crisis Group, a political think-tank, reported that: "In the rubble-strewn streets of the ruined capital of this state without a government... al-Qaeda operatives, jihadi extremists, Ethiopian security services and Western-backed counter-terrorism networks are engaged in a shadowy and complex contest waged by intimidation, abduction and assassination."
The Ethiopians are extremely wary of radical Islam in the region and helped battle al-Itihaad in the 1990s.
They may well be happy to work with the US against the Islamic courts and a US anti-terror task force is conveniently based just over the border in Djibouti.
However, even some western diplomats in the region are critical of US policy, which they fear could scupper the prospects of peace in Somalia, by antagonising the first group to secure the whole of Mogadishu in 15 years and which enjoys considerable popular support. Somali analysts argue that the best way to stop Somalia becoming a base for international Islamic fighters would be for a single government to reassert control of the whole country.
The Islamic courts now seem set to play a key role in the peace process, from which they have previously been excluded - if the US gives them the time to talk to the transitional government.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
