Zimbabwe's government adopted new guidelines set by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for treating people living with HIV almost a year ago, but funding constraints have made it difficult to implement them - until now. On 1 April 2011, Zimbabwe started phasing out the combination antiretroviral treatment (ARV) Stavudine, Lamivudine and Nevirapine as its first-line option for the national programme, replacing it with the less toxic Tenofovir-based regimens for adults and Zidovudine-based regimens for children, as recommended by the 2010 WHO guidelines.

The exodus of migrants streaming out of Libya due to ongoing unrest has highlighted the heavy dependence of some countries on remittances from their citizens working abroad. In several countries this flow has now become choked. 'With thousands returning home the economic impact of the unrest in Libya is that remittances will be reduced,' Dr. Mizanur Rahman, economist and research fellow at the National University of Singapore told IPS. Recent World Bank statistics indicate that developing countries got more than 325 billion dollars last year from migrant worker remittances, outstripping foreign direct investment and development assistance combined.

Two years into a supposed recovery, not only have none of the underlying contradictions that sparked the deepest economic and financial crisis since the Great Depression been resolved, but new problems are emerging, reports the World Socialist Website. The latest World Economic Outlook (WEO) report notes that 'the pace of activity remains uneven, with unemployment lagging'. Growth was 'insufficiently strong to make a major dent in high unemployment rates' with the number of jobless having increased by 30 million since 2007.

This footage from the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) posted to shows the beating of a protestor during a protest in Ficksburg in the eastern Free State.

The Second Committee of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, which focuses on economic and finance policy, released in January a draft resolution on external debt sustainability and development. The text of the draft resolution on external debt sustainability recognises the important role of debt relief, debt restructuring and debt cancellation for the purpose of debt crisis prevention as well as for mitigating the adverse impact of the world financial and economic crisis in developing countries.

The recent uprisings that have affected almost every country in the Middle East and North Africa region are indicative of deep structural issues that are facing societies in these countries. Calls for democracy, economic reforms, employment opportunities and greater accountability require us to question the development model pursued in the region by institutions like the World Bank and the underlying assumptions that may have led to the failure of this model, says this article from the Bank Information Centre.

Ravensmead brothers who are alleged to have subjected three black workers at a factory in Blackheath to sexual, verbal and physical abuse appeared in court today (14 April) amid high drama. About a hundred people protested outside the Blue Downs Magistrate’s Court. The charges relate to claims by the three workers that the brothers, owners of a timber company in Blackheath Industria, had beaten, sexually assaulted and hurled racial remarks at them after they reported for work last Tuesday night.

Mineral Resources' Minister Susan Shabangu has told Pondoland opponents of a titanium dune mining project that she needs another month to consider their appeal against the Xolobeni coastal dune mining project. Amadiba Crisis Committee spokesman Sinegugu Zukulu said the mining project 'has become an ever more menacing threat to the unique biodiversity of the Wild Coast and traditional way of life of the amaMpondo'.

In Madagascar, grassroots struggles against corporate-driven land grabbing have emerged as a political point of focus in the growing global spotlight on land grabs throughout the global south, a process that the UN special rapporteur on the right to food says has 'negative effects on the right to food as well as other human rights'. Mass scale corporate land occupations are expanding throughout Africa, and Madagascar is an example of the intensity of the corporate push for national lands but also on the ability for communities to resist such land grabbing.

Dozens of minors interviewed by Amnesty International for a new report had joined the Chadian army and armed opposition groups in the east. The report found that 80 per cent of the estimated 7,000-10,000 child soldiers recruited in Chad are associated with armed groups, while the remaining 20 per cent are involved with the country’s armed forces. These UN estimates also indicate that they may have been used as combatants.

In the two months since pro-democracy rebels rose up, eastern Libya has faced food and fuel shortages, media blackouts, power outages and the total disruption of social services. And with a long-time government prohibition on all NGOs and international humanitarian agencies barred from filling the void, the citizens of Benghazi are on their own and have set up their own structures to provide for themselves.

A project in South Africa supports mathematics education in schools using the web, social networking and mobile apps to deliver learning material directly to students’ cell phones. Teachers can also use the content in their classroom lessons. Students can practise mathematics exercises from a cell phone at any time and receive immediate feedback, while teaching staff only need a two-day training course to learn how to use the new service.

There is a wide recognition that regional integration is crucial for the prosperous future of African countries' economic progress, with some of the highest tariffs facing African countries being imposed by their neighbours, regional economic integration remains a challenge and only a very small percentage of African countries exports are being traded regionally. Visit the Chatham House website for a document summarising an event held at Chatham House which explored the prospects for an African free trade area.

More than 800 people have died in south Sudan violence since January and almost 94,000 people fled their homes, posing a major challenge for the fledgling state, the top UN aid official for the region warned. The nation in waiting has seen an upsurge in bloody clashes since January's largely peaceful referendum, in which southerners voted almost unanimously to split with the north. The number of people displaced by violence has doubled in the past month to 93,780 people, according to figures released by Lise Grande, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Sudan.

The UN mission in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI) must protect the tens of thousands of civilians displaced by the conflict who wish to return to their home villages but are afraid to do so, Amnesty International has said. 'Thousands of people are hiding in the bush in life threatening conditions and without any proper food or sanitation. They need to be reassured and to be allowed to return to their homes,' said Gaëtan Mootoo, Amnesty’s Côte d’Ivoire researcher who is currently in the west of the country.

A controversial US project that pays drug users and alcoholics to undergo sterilisation or long-term contraception, is setting its sights on women living with HIV in South Africa. Founder of Project Prevention Barbara Harris has confirmed that they were making plans to offer similar services to women living with HIV in South Africa as well as drug users. However, Professor Eddie Mhlanga, Chief Director for Maternal, Child and Women’s Health in the health department said they would approach the Human Rights Commission if the project started operating in South Africa.

Makerere University wants the government to quickly approve a proposal to raise fees to sh6m, up from sh3m per student per year, a public accounts committee has heard. Committee members Nandala Mafabi, Oduman Okello and Grace Oburu argued that Makerere tuition fees were still high and expressed worry that if implemented, the proposed fees structure would affect the poor. 'Sh6m per student? Parents and students should now brace themselves for hard times ahead. I don’t know why Makerere charges high fees despite the fact that it is a public university,' Mafabi said.

Angola, Africa's second-biggest crude oil producer, has denied a report that it lost almost $6 billion in illicit capital flows in 2009. Calculations provided to Reuters by Washington-based watchdog Global Financial Integrity (GFI) suggest funds equivalent to nearly a sixth of the annual budget went missing in the last year for which data are available. In a rare response from the usually tight-lipped government, the finance ministry denied there was anything suspicious about the discrepancies highlighted by GFI.

Rather than backing down after the arrest of two Ugandan opposition leaders for staging a 'Walk to Work' protest against high fuel and food prices on Monday, Ugandan activists have responded by announcing a hunger strike and planning more demonstrations, reports Global Voices. According to the Uganda Talks Blog: 'Mukono North MP Betty Nambooze told journalists today that the leaders have decided not to eat anything as they go about their duties at Parliament. She said that there was no point for them (leaders) to eat when the public can hardly afford food.'

Around 7,000 stillbirths occur globally every day, with the poorest nations worst affected, a series of papers published in The Lancet suggest. An overwhelming 98 per cent of the 2.6m stillbirths each year strike middle and low-income countries, they say. Better clinical care and monitoring could halve stillbirths in poorer countries by 2020, the paper adds.