http://www.IRINnews.org/Frontpage.asp Updated every day en-gb Sun, 8 Nov 2009 02:57:00 GMT United Nations Integrated Regional Information Networks, http://www.IRINnews.org/Frontpage.asp DAKAR, 6 November 2009 (IRIN) - Even when Guinea is not facing political crisis and reeling from a massacre, daily life is gruelling for many and instability is never far away. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in a September 2009 report says Guinea is “volatile” due to a combination of sharp economic decline; widespread and chronic poverty; limited access to basic services like health, water and sanitation; and persistent political instability. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=86924 JOHANNESBURG, 6 November 2009 (IRIN) - The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has been feeding people in Lesotho since 1965, yet the tiny mountain kingdom is still not much closer to achieving food self-sufficiency. Time to overhaul the approach, aid agencies say. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=86910 NAIROBI, 6 November 2009 (IRIN) - Aid agencies operating in Somalia say they need more money but that some donors are holding back, concerned at where resources might end up in areas too dangerous for international staff. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=86909 NOUAKCHOTT, 5 November 2009 (IRIN) - People living with HIV in Mauritania are voicing their concerns about the suspension of HIV/AIDS funding by the World Bank and the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. They feel powerless in the face of the decisions, of which they are suffering the consequences. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=86904 JOHANNESBURG,, 5 November 2009 (IRIN) - Zimbabwe's rough diamond trade has escaped a six-month suspension by the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) - an international initiative to stem the flow of conflict diamonds - after its own investigating team recommended earlier in 2009 that the country be temporarily barred from importing and exporting the gems. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=86903 JOHANNESBURG, 5 November 2009 (IRIN) - Wavering international support for HIV/AIDS efforts is resulting in funding shortfalls that could wipe out a decade of progress in rolling out AIDS treatment, the international medical and humanitarian organization, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), has warned. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=86902 SELEBI-PHIKWE, 5 November 2009 (IRIN) - On a recent Wednesday evening, Gillian Otsile, a volunteer at a local NGO, Men Sex and AIDS, approached a group of young men drinking cartons of traditional sorghum beer at a tavern in Selebi-Phikwe, a mining town in northeastern Botswana. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=86899 KINSHASA, 5 November 2009 (IRIN) - At least 16,000 civilians have fled deadly clashes in western Democratic Republic of Congo and are now languishing, many without food or shelter, in neighbouring Republic of Congo, according to the UN and local officials. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=86898 WAJIR EAST, 5 November 2009 (IRIN) - The sound of the evening bell at a local boarding high-school in Wajir, in the northeast of Kenya, did not always signal the end of the day's classes. Instead it marked the end of the evening bathroom break as “bucket toilets” were emptied for the day. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=86896 JUBA, 5 November 2009 (IRIN) - Sudan has started registering voters for presidential, legislative and regional elections, but officials in the south and international observers say the process has begun on a flawed note. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=86894 MAPUTO, 5 November 2009 (IRIN) - Helena Numaio was 12 years old in 1990 when she lost both her legs and a finger in a landmine explosion while collecting firewood in the Moamba district of Maputo Province, Mozambique. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=86892 ZIGUINCHOR, 4 November 2009 (IRIN) - Landmines and armed attacks in Senegal's Casamance region are preventing farmers from maximizing production from the region's fertile soil, but there is another problem, too: not enough young people are taking up farming, residents and experts say. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=86887 DAKAR, 4 November 2009 (IRIN) - Donors have promised US$40 billion in aid to agriculture in developing countries since the Rome “food summit” in 2008, but in some countries the bulk of this aid is uncoordinated, shortsighted and does not support government priorities, says NGO Oxfam. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=86883 HARARE, 4 November 2009 (IRIN) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's threat to appoint interim ministers to plug the gap left by the "disengagement" of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) from the unity government could lead to a review of donor funding, a highly placed official from a major donor country told IRIN. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=86882 GABORONE, 4 November 2009 (IRIN) - Katlego Lally*, 17, belongs to a club for HIV-positive teenagers run by the Baylor Children's Clinic Centre of Excellence in Gaborone, Botswana's capital. She talked to IRIN/PlusNews about how the club has helped her overcome feelings of isolation and depression. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=86881 MBABANE, 4 November 2009 (IRIN) - Swaziland not only has the world's highest HIV prevalence rate, it now also has the highest tuberculosis (TB) rate, but health officials warn that not enough is being done to integrate TB and HIV services. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=86879 NOUAKCHOTT, 4 November 2009 (IRIN) - Adama Ndiaye, 20, is originally from the Kaédi region in the south of Mauritania – one of the regions worst affected by malnutrition. After losing her first two children she decided to go to the capital Nouakchott to care for her twins and her youngest child. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=86876 NOUAKCHOTT, 4 November 2009 (IRIN) - At the health centre in Dar Naim, a working class neighbourhood of Nouakchott, the building for malnourished children is always full: in rural areas the seasons and crops affect malnutrition levels whereas in the capital this phenomenon remains constant throughout the year. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=86874 NANYUKI, 4 November 2009 (IRIN) - Two years after violence forced Samuel Mwangi off his farm in the Kiambogo location of Nakuru District in Rift Valley Province, the father of seven is still struggling to rebuild his life and educate his children. Rift Valley, one of Kenya's grain baskets, was the worst-affected by the violence and food security has yet to recover. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=86871 NAIROBI, 4 November 2009 (IRIN) - Encouraging the use of traditional African herbal medicines could prevent some of the one million malarial deaths on the continent, according to specialists attending a conference www.mimalaria.org/pamc in Nairobi. Many poor communities, especially in rural settings, cannot afford modern malarial drugs and many people die due to inaccessibility of treatment. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=86866 GOMA, 4 November 2009 (IRIN) - While medical and psychological care are being provided to survivors of sexual violence in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where 7,000 women and girls have been raped this year alone, UN and aid workers on the ground say the funding response has been too narrow, leaving key issues inadequately addressed. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=86865 DAKAR, 4 November 2009 (IRIN) - International pressure is mounting on the junta in Guinea following the deadly 28 September military crackdown on demonstrators, with West African leaders imposing an arms embargo and the UN and the International Criminal Court launching probes into the attack that witnesses call "indescribably brutal". The latest violence stunned even a nation with a long history of military repression of civilians – an era Guineans had hoped would pass with the death of 24-year leader Lansana Conté and arrival of Moussa Dadis Camara in December 2008. Here is a timeline of some events since independence from France in 1958. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=85835 ABATETE, 3 November 2009 (IRIN) - Severe erosion over many years in Anambra, southeastern Nigeria, has cut off or destroyed hundreds of homes, businesses, farms and schools, prompting the governor to call for a state of emergency in the area where he says thousands of people now risk being displaced. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=86863 GABORONE, 3 November 2009 (IRIN) - Raging hormones, peer pressure and coming to terms with a changing body image - growing up is difficult enough without the added burden of living with HIV, and keeping it hidden from friends and classmates. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=86861 SONGO, 3 November 2009 (IRIN) - The conversations of deminers are often illustrated with sketches on the reverse side of old reports or the toe of a boot drawing lines in the sand to show how a single mine can close 35km of road, make a bridge redundant or deny a community a swathe of farming land. They are a meticulous fraternity that knows the devil is very much in the detail. http://www.IRINnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=86860