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Last Updated 31 Jul 2010

A Selection from our Members

The national strategy for combatting HIV and AIDS the Obama administration released Tuesday credits the Bush-era international campaign against AIDS for setting clear targets and ensuring a variety of agencies and groups worked together smoothly to achieve them.

George W. Bush launched the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR in 2003 in 15 countries, 12 of them African, that bear most of the world's AIDS burden. It has helped to treat more than 2 million Africans and supported 10 million more.

"The people here are so incredibly grateful for the impact it has had," said Kate Bistline, an official with Right to Care, a South African AIDS group that receives PEPFAR funds.

By Ed Brown, The Associated Press (U.S.)

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- It was described by lawyers as the case of the glamorous heiress, the Playboy centre­fold and the cannabis joint.

Paris Hilton and her friend Jennifer Rovero were both arrested at a World Cup match in South Africa on Friday after police found local marijuana - known as ‘dagga' - in a designer handbag.

But the question before a court in Port Elizabeth early yesterday was: Did the offending cigarette belong to socialite Paris or former Playboy playmate Jennifer?

In the end, the charges against 29-year-old Ms Hilton were dropped when her friend admitted possession and was given an £80 fine and a deportation order.

After the hearing, in which Ms Hilton appeared in thigh-high leather boots and tight jeans, her lawyer Terry Price insisted she should never have been arrested.

‘They got the wrong blonde,' he said. ‘Paris wasn't in possession of anything

By Barbara Jones, Mail on Sunday (U.K)

South Africa is now living inside the after-echo of the Big Bang. A giant football still hangs at OR Tambo International airport, month-old matches are replayed endlessly on ghostly TV screens and advertising billboards still welcome visitors who have long since departed. But flags are disappearing from cars and the vuvuzelas have fallen silent. The attentions of a fickle world have moved on. South Africa is already Gordon Brown.

Was it all a dream? Newspapers and television have returned to more familiar territory. An unarmed man shot dead by police when he failed to stop his car. Foreign nationals on the run from xenophobic attacks. Bitter power struggles inside Julius Malema's African National Congress youth league. Nelson Mandela's 92nd birthday.

By David Smith, Guardian (U.K.)