Health authorities in Zimbabwe announced that the country would get US$180 million from the Global Fund to fight HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

Guinean soldiers raped at least 100 women during a crackdown on protesters in September, a human rights group has said. The findings were released as United Nations experts began to investigate the repression, in which about 160 people were killed. The crackdown has drawn widespread condemnation and brought sanctions against the ruling military junta.

Most residents have fled Ndele town in northern Central African Republic after clashes between rebels and the army. The CPJP rebels attacked at dawn on Thursday but the army is now in control. Casualty numbers are unclear.

Burundian authorities should immediately retract an ordinance outlawing the Forum for the Strengthening of Civil Society (FORSC), an umbrella organization representing 146 Burundian civil society associations, said Amnesty International, the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project, and Human Rights Watch in a joint statement.

A growing trend towards criminalising transmission of HIV – including transmission from mother to child – puts women at risk and will undermine progress in fighting AIDS, warns international development agency ActionAid.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called on all parties in Côte d’Ivoire to fix a new date as soon as possible for their much-delayed elections, now postponed yet again from their latest deadline of this month.

A Tunisian journalist has been sentenced to six months imprisonment on for slander and assault after a trial criticised by rights groups. Accused of assaulting a woman in public, Taoufik Ben Brik, 49, was arrested on October 29, four days after Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was re-elected with nearly 90 per cent of the vote.

South Africa has moved swiftly to develop a male circumcision plan that would have buy-in from all stakeholders and will go beyond being a purely medical intervention, ideally also engaging men on among others HIV prevention, gender issues and alcohol abuse.

The consequences of the Doha Round of trade talks for larger developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa could include job losses and deindustrialisation if a new study forecasting how Kenya is set to be affected is anything to go by.

A new Ugandan study adds to a growing body of evidence that providing home-based antiretroviral (ARV) care in low-income settings can be as effective as facility-based interventions.

‘Food sovereignty is the real solution to the tragedy of hunger in our world’, representatives from social movements, NGOs and CSOs have said in a declaration issued at a forum parallel to the World Summit on Food Security, which was held in Rome from 13-17 November 2009. The declaration asserts that ‘all people have a right and responsibility to participate in deciding how food is produced and distributed’ and that ‘governments must respect, protect and fulfil the right to food as the right to adequate, available, accessible, culturally acceptable and nutritious food’. It also sets out a series of civil society commitments to defending food security.

The International Peace Research Association Foundation invites applications for the Dorothy Marchus Senesh Fellowship in Peace and Development Studies for Third World Women. Dorothy Senesh was a long-time activist for international peace and justice. Her husband Lawrence established this fellowship following her death in 1989. The first award was made at the IPRA 25th Anniversary meeting, July 1990, in Groningen, Netherlands and has been made biennially since. The eleventh award will be made at the 23nd biennial IPRA meeting in Syndey, Australia.

Genetically engineered (GE) corn, soybeans and cotton have increased use of weed-killing herbicides — a type of pesticide — by 383 million pounds in the U.S. from 1996 to 2008, according to a new report titled “Impacts of Genetically Engineered Crops on Pesticide Use in the United States: The First Thirteen Years” announced by The Organic Center (TOC), the Union for Concerned Scientists (UCS) and the Center for Food Safety (CFS).

What can be done to ensure that the poorest Africans have access to a healthcare system that charges user fees? Many options have been proposed to address this situation, but currently the decision-makers involved have little or no access to these. To support them in their reflection, a team of researchers from the University of Montreal, with support from the international NGO HELP (Hilfe zur Selbsthilfe e.V.), has produced a thorough compilation of all existing knowledge on this subject, in four bilingual policy briefs.

Western Sahara activist Aminatou Haidar has declined an offer by Madrid to grant her refugee status following her expulsion from the territory by Morocco, a representative said Saturday. Jose Morales Brum, a trade union leader in Spain's Canary Islands, said that Haidar, a winner of several human rights awards, was continuing the hunger strike she began at midnight on Sunday.

Gender Links has urged Southern African governments to put prevention at the centre of national action plans to end gender violence during the Sixteen Days of Activism on Gender Violence. It has also called on governments to ensure that these plans include comprehensive legislation and services, harness the energies of all sectors of society, are based on baseline surveys with measurable indicators and are adequately funded.

In this week’s [mp3], South African domestic workers get wage increase, Mozambican unions decry paltry fine for workers’ deaths, and Zimbabwe’s unions demand parliamentary inquiry into worker shootings. This bulletin is part of a partnership between Worker’s World Media Productions and Pambazuka News that seeks to highlight labour issues affecting Africa’s workers.

A new book published by Jacana Media takes the reader on a journey into the many worlds inhabited by transgender South Africans. The life stories recounted in this collection are both inspiring and compelling and reveal the courage and strength of each of the story tellers involved. The narratives detail the constant challenges of living in a country, that, despite its progressive constitution, is still host to myriad prejudices and misunderstandings when it comes to trans people.

Survivors Connect is a collaborative project to build global advocacy & support networks of survivors and activists working to end modern-day slavery and human trafficking. Survivors Connect uses innovative instruments such as social media, new technologies and other interactive media to empower and enhance protection, prosecution and prevention efforts.

The FitzGerald Prize is a scholarship set up by Reuters outgoing Board to honour Niall FitzGerald, its Chairman, and now Deputy Chairman of Thomson Reuters. Niall has a long-standing interest in Africa, having served as CEO of Unilever’s foods business in South Africa in the early 1980s. He also co-chairs the Investment Climate Facility for Africa