MBABANE, 20 April (PLUSNEWS) - Child rights advocates have banded together in a bid to cope with ongoing concerns about the welfare of Southern Africa's children.Full report

DURBAN, 19 April (PLUSNEWS) - Southern Africa's recent humanitarian crisis highlighted how the HIV/AIDS epidemic increased people's vulnerability to acute food shortages, leaving them unable to cope. Full report

JOHANNESBURG, 18 April (PLUSNEWS) - HIV/AIDS and poverty are the stumbling blocks to achieving the target of gender parity in most Southern African classrooms by 2015, according to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF). Full report

DURBAN, 18 April (PLUSNEWS) - The pressures of caring for terminally ill family members, while trying to make ends meet in a country staggering under the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and food shortages, has forced many poor Zambian households to make painful decisions. Full report

DURBAN, 15 April (PLUSNEWS) - The link between HIV/AIDS and hunger in rural communities has received a great deal of attention over the past few years - particularly in Southern Africa, where HIV/AIDS has added a new dimension to the recent food crisis.Full report

JOHANNESBURG, 15 April (PLUSNEWS) - Full report

JOHANNESBURG, 22 April (PLUSNEWS) - South African employees of the German car manufacturer, BMW, as well as the general public, will benefit from an HIV/AIDS clinic opened by the company on Thursday in the capital, Pretoria. Full report

JOHANNESBURG, 22 April (PLUSNEWS) - South African mining giant AngloGold Ashanti has blamed stigma and fear of retrenchment for the slow uptake by employees of its free anti-AIDS programme. Full report

JOHANNESBURG, 21 April (PLUSNEWS) - A panel of experts has recommended that the US create a body of full-time medical professionals for deployment to countries targeted by President George W Bush's $15 billion global anti-AIDS initiative. Full report

JOHANNESBURG, 21 April (PLUSNEWS) - Two UN agencies are meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, to develop new guidelines for the safety of health care workers busy with the global fight against HIV/AIDS. Full report

JOHANNESBURG, 21 April (PLUSNEWS) - Experts fear close to 750,000 Africans will die from AIDS and malaria before July, when the 'Group of Eight' (G8) most industrialised nations will try to break a deadlock over debt relief and funds to fight disease and poverty. Full report

JOHANNESBURG, 20 April (PLUSNEWS) - South Africa's Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu has urged the newly elected Catholic pontiff to reconsider the Church's stance on condoms in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Full report