These essays review Africa's economic performance over the last two decades from a contemporary historical perspective. The contributors include Professor Luhanga, and Professor Issa Shivji, from the University of Dar es Salaam. They argue that the problem in East Africa is the lack of integration into a world economy and culture; and simultaneously, the African way of life developing as a hybrid of ideas, values and behaviour which erodes independent/national identities and political and economic life.

The NGO Coalition for the International Criminal Court (Coalition) has expressed concern that some candidates for judgeships at the newly-formed International Criminal Court (ICC) have not been nominated in accordance with the criteria provided in the Rome Statute of the ICC, or with the nomination procedures adopted by the Assembly of States Parties (ASP), the ICC's governing body.

The recent White House proposal to aid impoverished countries if they drop trade barriers and open their markets is likely to substantially accelerate the misery index in Latin America and Africa, the main targets of the $5 billion plan. Entitled the Millennium Challenge Account, the administration says it will be doled out to countries like Senegal, Ghana, Bolivia, and Honduras if they institute "the rule of law," as well as "sound fiscal policies." This latter includes free trade for "American goods and services." But 15 years of free trade and open markets have inflicted ruinous damage on poor countries in Latin America and Africa.

AIDS threatens our very raison d'etre; our ability to live and our instinct to create life. Little wonder, therefore, that HIV and AIDS are so feared. As the articles in this IRIN World AIDS Day web special (http://www.irinnews.org/webspecials/aids/) illustrates, fear is at the heart of much of the stigma and discrimination that surrounds HIV and AIDS.
Related Link: http://www.kff.org/worldaidsday/

The Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ) has noted with concern the continued harassment of The Daily News by ZANU PF supporters and state agents. The MMPZ described the “blatant acts of intolerance” as a violation of the public's right to access information through media of their choice.

Ethiopia’s Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin has said trade between Africa and China should be on an equal footing whereby both benefit. Addressing a meeting in Addis Ababa on trade between China and the African continent, he said that the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) must play a key role in forging any trade relations between the two.

Fighting broke out on Wednesday in northwestern Cote d'Ivoire between rebels and loyalist forces, army spokesman Lt-Col Jules Yao Yao said in a televised statement.

A task force investigating the extent of plunder of national resources has frozen 41 bank accounts of implicated individuals.

The Japanese Government has given Kenya over Sh7 million to finance health projects across the country. The funds were granted to St John's Ambulance and Irigiro Community Self Help Group (ICSHG) to establish and construct proposed health projects.

South Africa could be at a turning point in the war on HIV/Aids: a billion-rand injection of funds to fight the pandemic is within weeks, or perhaps even days, of being deposited into a South African bank account by the Global Fund.

With no cure in sight, education and prevention will be in the spotlight this World AIDS Day. What started as a novel approach – mixing HIV prevention messages with serial dramas – has emerged as a proven model with significant results in the fight against HIV infection.

The global press freedom situation has deteriorated in the past year, with an alarming number of journalists killed or in prison, the World Association of Newspapers said Monday in its annual review of press freedom world-wide.

The African Development Fund, the soft loan arm of the African Development Bank, has approved the equivalent of a US $4.26-million grant for institutional support to the DRC. The grant, to be drawn from the Technical Assistance Fund, will go to support projects aimed to boost the government's capacity to manage its macroeconomic and public investment programmes.

Mohammed Abacha, son of Nigeria's late military ruler General Sani Abacha, who was recently released from three years in prison on charges of money laundering and corruption, has instructed lawyers to retrieve millions of dollars he says are rightfully his. Banks in Europe have frozen accounts holding money allegedly siphoned off while General Abacha ruled Nigeria from 1993 to his death in 1998.

The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, Africa's "major free trade bloc," has applied to the World Trade Organization for permission to manufacture generic versions of patented antiretroviral drugs, Reuters reports.

A desperate move by the Zanu PF government to protect consumers from economic hardships it has created, has backfired, causing more hardships instead. The deterioration of the economy has been worsened since late last year by the desperate ruling party, which sought to ensure the re-election of President Robert Mugabe in the face of a challenge from MDC president, Morgan Tsvangirai. The price controls have caused havoc in the country, threatening the livelihood of many people.

This paper by the European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad) outlines a 15 year programme for implementing the 2015 human development targets and a potential solution for the indebtedness of 49 countries. This proposal requires a multilateral collaboration among all the participants and additional contributions from 23 countries equal to 0.1 of 1% of their GNP over each of the 15 years.

Some 83 countries are on track to achieve Education For All (EFA) by the deadline of 2015 set at the World Education Forum in Dakar (Senegal) two and a half years ago. However, on present trends, more than 70 other countries will not make it, and some are even going backwards. This is the conclusion of the 2002 Education For All Global Monitoring Report: Is the World on Track? launched by UNESCO.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and its partners are expanding help to more vulnerable children in Burkina Faso. They are providing school materials to 10,000 children this year, up from 850 in 2000. Parents of many of these children died of AIDS. Only about a third of children in Burkina Faso, one of the world's poorest countries, are enrolled in primary school.

Leading trade ministers agreed on a plan last Thursday to give the world's poorest nations access to affordable medicines, a breakthrough in the effort to tackle global health crises like HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, officials said. The plan would grant waivers on drug patents on a case-by-case basis and seek tight controls on trade in the generic medicines.