CABINDA, 13 December (PLUSNEWS) - Fear of stigmatisation in Angola is keeping people living with HIV/AIDS in hiding. Caregivers are more than willing to help but are having a hard time finding patients to take care of. Full report

LUANDA, 13 December (PLUSNEWS) - Makiesse means "happiness" in Kikongo, a language spoken in northern Angola. But the early childhood of 10-year-old Makiesse Jonas was far from joyous. Full report

NAIROBI, 13 December (PLUSNEWS) - Kenya risks falling victim to new, drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis (TB), found elsewhere on the continent, if the government fails to take the TB epidemic more seriously, activists have warned. Full report

HARARE, 13 December (PLUSNEWS) - Zimbabwe's deteriorating health services have made room for a thriving parallel market for drugs, many of them counterfeit, warn concerned health professionals. Full report

ARBIL, 12 December (PLUSNEWS) - Health officials in Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region have said they lack antiretroviral drugs and HIV testing equipment, and that they have been instructed by health authorities in Baghdad to deport foreigners who have been found HIV-positive. Full report

MANZINI, 11 December (PLUSNEWS) - "Swaziland is dying. Will the last nurse on duty please turn off the lights?" reads a handwritten note at a clinic in Manzini, the country's AIDS-hit commercial centre, 35km southeast of the capital, Mbabane. Full report

NAIROBI, 15 December (IRIN) - Presidents from several Great Lakes countries signed a pact at the end of a two-day summit in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on Friday to address security, stability and development across the region. Full report

DAKAR, 14 December (IRIN) - Child rights advocates are increasingly facing a dilemma: How to boost the number of girls getting an education while reducing sexual violence in schools? Full report

MBABANE, 14 December (IRIN) - Despite Swaziland's humanitarian crisis, local newspapers are largely ignoring issues such as poverty, food shortages and HIV/AIDS in favour of reports about crime and bickering amongst political personalities, according to the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA). Full report

JOHANNESBURG , 14 December (IRIN) - Emergency interventions to alleviate suffering during times of crisis, such as the 2005 food shortages in Malawi, often cure the symptoms but not the cause, said the annual World Disasters Report, launched on Thursday by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Full report

NAIROBI, 14 December (IRIN) - Somalia is one of the worst places for humanitarian actors but they should strive to negotiate access to help Somalis living in extremely poor and underdeveloped conditions, a senior United Nations official said on Thursday. Full report