Media Centre

SOUTH AFRICA: World Cup to help create HIV awareness JOHANNESBURG Thursday, November 19, 2009 (IRIN) - In less than seven months South Africa will host the world's biggest single sporting event - the FIFA World Cup. The chance to reach millions of local and visiting football fans presents a golden opportunity, not only for the country's business and tourism sectors, but also for its efforts to combat HIV/AIDS.

ZIMBABWE: Weapons theft stokes fears of instability HARARE Thursday, November 19, 2009 (IRIN) - The recent "suicide" of a senior army officer in the wake of a break-in at a military armoury in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, is sowing fears that the missing guns may be used to fuel instability.

SOUTH AFRICA: Funds needed for displaced ZimbabweansJOHANNESBURG Wednesday, November 18, 2009 (IRIN) - The number of Zimbabweans displaced after some of their shacks in an informal settlement outside De Doorns, a farming town about 140km from Cape Town, South Africa, were attacked and demolished by local South African residents, has risen to about 3,000, said the South African Red Cross Society.

SOUTH AFRICA-ZIMBABWE: More than 2,000 Zimbabweans flee, fearing attacksJOHANNESBURG Tuesday, November 17, 2009 (IRIN) - Fearing a resurgence of xenophobic attacks, around 2,500 Zimbabwean migrants have taken refuge in government buildings in De Doorns, a farming town about 140km from Cape Town, South Africa, after some of their shacks in an informal settlement were attacked and demolished, said a police official.

ZAMBIA: Orphans grow up without cultural identity LUSAKA Monday, November 16, 2009 (IRIN) - Abigail Mwanashimba has been looking after her five siblings since the age of eight, when her parents died of AIDS-related illnesses. She is now 19 years old, and without relatives to represent her at her lobola (bride price) negotiations, she was forced to hire traditional counsellors to organise the process of marriage according to the tribal customs. They did a bad job.

ANGOLA: Esperança Mutamba, "I'm living this double life" LUANDA Monday, November 16, 2009 (IRIN) - Esperança Mutamba (not her real name), who has been living with the virus for 10 years and works as HIV/AIDS counsellor in the Angolan capital, Luanda, is still not ready to publicly disclose her HIV status.

SOUTH AFRICA: How many undocumented migrants? Pick a numberJOHANNESBURG Friday, November 13, 2009 (IRIN) - Guesstimating the number of undocumented migrants living in South Africa is like asking, "How long is a piece of string?" and the answer is - no one knows.

In Brief: World hunger increases despite growth in food productionDUSHANBE Thursday, November 12, 2009 (IRIN) - Even as world food production grows, hunger is on the rise in many poor countries, according to the Global Crop Prospects and Food Situation report for November, published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on 12 November.

LESOTHO: Mokete Tsehlo, "I don't take [antiretroviral] drugs because I am moving around with the sheep" MASERU Thursday, November 12, 2009 (IRIN) - Mokete Tsehlo, 26, a shepherd working in the Berea district in the tiny mountain kingdom of Lesotho, told IRIN/PlusNews how his nomadic lifestyle contributed to his HIV-positive diagnosis.

BOTSWANA: What's driving HIV in Selebi-Phikwe?SELEBI-PHIKWE Thursday, November 12, 2009 (IRIN) - In most respects, there is nothing remarkable about Selebi-Phikwe, a mining town in northeastern Botswana with a population of about 50,000. The central business district is a sun-baked main street with a few shops and a taxi rank; the copper and nickel mine on its outskirts is the main source of employment.