Reporters Without Borders has urged the Tunisian authorities to take account of the demands of eight opposition figures who began an indefinite hunger strike on 18 October to demand respect for freedom of expression and association in Tunisia and the release of all prisoners of conscience. The hunger strikers include Lotfi Hajji, the head of the Tunisian Journalists Union (SJT). One of the aims of the “18 October Movement” is to draw the international community’s attention to the many violations of basic freedoms in Tunisia although the country is hosting the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) on 16-18 November.

The USAID Global Health Bureau announces the new Global Health E-Learning Center. The Center offers a series of health and population e-learning courses that will cover a wide range of public health issues.

Souad never suspected how much her life was about to change when she was summoned four years ago by the Ministry of Health and Population to test for HIV/AIDS. There she was told that her husband had been tested positive for the virus two years earlier. Altogether, 2,115 cases of HIV/AIDS have been reported to the health ministry since 1986. However, UNAIDS reckons the infection is much more widespread in this country of 77 million people.

The National Museums of Kenya has disclosed it is monitoring the migration of birds into the country as experts warned that birds from Europe were likely to make a stop over in the Rift Valley. The announcement came in the wake of confirmation that the risk of the bird flu spreading to Africa and the Middle East has markedly increased. Chief FAO veterinary officer Joseph Domenech said the detection of bird flu in some countries in Europe "confirms FAO's recent warning that the virus is spreading along the pathways of migratory birds outside south-east Asia."

Today, it is estimated that 840 million people are severely undernourished, while in other countries obesity is reaching epidemic proportions, writes John Hepburn of Greenpeace International in an article on the website www.zmag.org that marks World Food Day. "Solving hunger is not merely a matter of producing enough food, but of distributing it to the people in need. People don't starve because there isn't enough food produced, but because they are poor and are denied access to it."

The Southern Africa Regional Centre for HIV/AIDS Research and Training (SAHART) is developing a database of projects and research around HIV/AIDS in the SADC region. CMFD productions has been tasked with collecting information for the database for South Africa and Mozambique. If you are working in HIV/AIDS in South Africa or Mozambique, please e-mail your information to [email protected]

The Global Health Research Initiative (GHRI), a partnership between the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Health Canada, and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), invites letters of intent from teams composed of Canadian and low- and middle- income country (LMIC) researchers and research users (e.g. policymakers, practitioners, and civil society organizations) interested in developing innovative multi-year programs that combine applied research, knowledge translation, and capacity building to solve pressing health problems in LMICs. (English and French versions available through the link below)

The post holder will be responsible for providing technical and programme support at the regional and country level on the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the regional component of the Medium Term Strategic Plan 2006-2009 on HIV/AIDS and Children.

Two HIV-positive women presented to the media in June by the Dr Rath Health Foundation as examples of how its vitamins can reverse Aids have admitted that they were on antiretroviral (ARVs) drugs all along. A third woman, a high profile Rath Foundation agent who has been promoting the vitamins in Gugulethu, died a few months after rejecting ARVs.

Focus on the HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria epidemics has deflected attention and resources from about seven treatable diseases that have a greater impact on health care and development in Africa, according to a study published in the November edition of PLoS Medicine, the Financial Times reports. Diseases such as schistosomiasis, ascariasis, sleeping sickness, river blindness, elephantiasis, hookworm and blinding trachoma affect about 750 million people and kill more than 500,000 people annually in sub-Saharan Africa, the report says.

Farmers, experts and officials meet in Lusaka, Monday 17 October, to discuss the impact of HIV/AIDS on smallholder agriculture and ways to secure food supplies and rural livelihoods, despite widespread declining incomes and productivity. The three-day workshop, 17-19 October, is convened by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). It will provide participants with an opportunity to share strategies that can mitigate the effect of the pandemic on rural development in Southern Africa.

The ownership of the media and issues related to the governance of global media institutions are of immense public significance. Not only are the cultural industries a major source of contemporary power - economic, political, social - they are also the primary definers of consciousness in most parts of the contemporary world. Media ownership patterns and permutations today are a direct consequence of the globalisation of neo-liberal economics. While there are some regional variations in the ownership "mix" the trend, from South Africa to Argentina and India to East and Central Europe, is the same.

PoliticsOnline and the 6th Worldwide Forum on Electronic Democracy are proud to announce the results of the annual world-wide survey recognizing the top 10 individuals, organizations and companies that are impacting the world of Internet and politics. Pambazuka News made it into the top 10 after a selection process that began in July, when PoliticsOnline asked its subscribers and visitors from around the world, to nominate people, organizations and companies that are changing the world of Internet and politics.

Opinions on genetically modified crops are very much polarised, so who makes decisions on their adoption? The level of stakeholder consultation by governments varies between countries, and civil society groups may only have limited lobbying access. This Panos report on GM decision-making takes a look at the issue of genetically modified crops in five developing countries, examines the influence NGOs and the media, and argues for full public participation in the GM debate.

A World Bank loan of 30 million dollars established Kenya's first EPZ in 1990. There are now five around the country containing about 40 firms - with plans to build two more in the near future. The zones are intended to increase foreign currency earnings for the impoverished nation of almost 34 million people through exports to the United States and Europe. Almost 40,000 Kenyans, mostly women, are employed in the EPZs (up from some 26,000 in 2002), no small matter in a country where official statistics put unemployment at almost 15 percent. This success has been undermined, however, by persistent allegations of poor working conditions and human rights abuses in the zones.

Deaths in the cholera epidemic raging in tiny Guinea-Bissau have passed the 300 mark, prompting authorities to ban the sale of drinks and food by street vendors as well as forbid all traditional ceremonies. The health ministry said on Wednesday that the epidemic has claimed 305 lives and stricken 19,054 people in four months. Sources in the ministry said that despite measures to halt the spread, the four-month-old epidemic was gaining ground.

The most immediate form of assistance to the poorest and most vulnerable people is food aid. Yet, while this may be an effective short-term measure, questions are being raised about long-term sustainability, and about the role of donor countries in promoting local food security. This week the Eldis (a development, policy, practice and research website) Aid and Debt Resource Guide features papers that consider various aspects of the debate over food aid. A paper from the OECD considers the phenomenon of tying food aid, restricting its sources to a few donor countries. A paper from the All Parliamentary Group for Debt, Aid and Trade argues for the need to build agricultural capacity in Africa, so that responses to food insecurity cease to be reactive.

Renewed calls for Government to take action against the controversial Dr Rath Health Foundation have come from a large group of health professionals working in the Western Cape's internationally acclaimed antiretroviral programme. In a strongly worded letter to the province's health minister Pierre Uys the 199 health professionals warned that the activities of Dr Rath Health Foundation were "the largest challenges our health services have ever been confronted with". Rath and his foundation, which includes agents from the South African National Civics Organisation, has since the beginning of the year been promoting high doses of multi-vitamins as an alternative to anti-retroviral drugs which they describe as toxic.

HIV/AIDS is robbing subsistence farmers of the ability to grow enough food, according to a new survey conducted in northern Namibia. Out of 144 HIV-affected households in the Oshana, Oshikoto and Okavango Regions, 86 percent did not produce enough mahangu (pearl millet) and maize to meet their calorie requirements, said a report this week by the Namibia Economic Policy Research Unit (NEPRU).

Five year-old Fati could barely hold back her tears. This little girl who loves going to school had just been sent home. Like the other three kids turned away at the gates on the first day of classes, Fati is HIV-positive and has been orphaned by AIDS. Her head low, her uniform not quite hiding a stomach swollen from the antiretroviral (ARV) drugs she's been taking for a year, Fati, which is not her real name, clung to Cathryn Barrera, director of Mother's Welfare Group (MWG).