Gayle Smith, a senior foreign policy adviser to President Obama and senior director for relief, stabilization and development at the National Security Council, addressed the closing plenary of the Global Business Coalition on HIV/Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria's annual conference in Washington DC. Excerpts from her speech: Thank you so much for inviting me here. I want to start off by saying congratulations. I remember when this organization started. It was a great idea at the time - and that was not too long ago - but still, a time when making the case that there is a strategic, integral linkage between business and health was in a lot of places an uphill struggle. The content of what you have been and will be discussing is remarkable, so my hat goes off to all of you.

"Lifting up successful models" of democracy in Africa encourages more democracy on the continent, President Barack Obama told AllAfrica Wednesday, explaining why he chose the West African nation of Ghana as the first sub-Saharan African country he would visit next week as President of the United States.

For more than 50 years, the International Council for Science (ICSU) has had world data centers -- open, nonpolitical repositories of data for scientists in every country. Now, the ICSU is replacing the centers with a leading-edge World Data System (WDS) whose scope and technologies are evolving but whose policy of nondiscriminatory access to science remains a priority.

With knowledge being an essential element in Africa's development process, a United Nations librarian has called on African governments to help narrow the digital divide.

Barack Obama makes his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa as president of the United States next week, following a trip to Russia as well as to Italy, where he will participate in a meeting of industrialized nations known as the G8. AllAfrica's Charles Cobb, Jr., Reed Kramer and Tami Hultman went to the White House to explore President Obama's views on Africa in advance of his visit. The interview took place in the Blue Room.Charles Cobb posed the questions. We asked visitors to our site, allAfrica.com, what they might be interested in with respect to your policy. And as you might imagine, the responses are everywhere: conflict resolution, development issues, trade issues, et cetera. But they and we have one immediate question: How is it that you happened to pick Ghana as the first place to visit in sub-Saharan Africa?

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group approved, Wednes-day in Tunis, a $500m investment in the Global Trade Liquidity Program as the second phase of its Trade Finance Initiative.

The future leaders of Africa are up against major barriers to knowledge access, which could mean lost opportunities in university learning and teaching.

Two readers of this column recently wondered why I have not written on human security and urged me to explain the extent to which African states and the African Union have implemented the human security agenda.

RUNAWAY FOOD PRICES GAVE the world a wake-up call last year. Two weeks ago, another alarm went off: UN food agencies reported that the world's hungry have surpassed one billion in number. At least 265 million of these are in sub-Saharan Africa - an increase of almost 12 per cent over last year.

The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation applauded the U.S. government for taking the final steps to repeal the more than 15-year-old policy banning HIV-positive foreign nationals from entering the United States.  Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) removed HIV from the list of “communicable diseases of public health significance,” effectively removing the last hurdle to overturning the ban.

Starting July 3, you are invited to send a text message to President Barack Obama with your questions and comments in advance of his visit to Africa.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is among several African leaders and Heads of Government attending the 13th Ordinary Session of Heads of State and Government of the African Union, taking place in the Libyan town of Sirte.

Education curriculum in most African countries lack information on technology and entrepreneurship, thus making it difficulty for them to join the globalised world.

WOMEN have become the face of Aids in Africa.

For every generation there are leading lights: men and women, who through sheer vision, consummate professionalism and exemplary character stand head and shoulders above their peers. And as beacon bearers they point the way forward to a society whose values have been darkened by timidity, deprivation and bigotry.

I had just finished watching the FIFA Confederation Cup tournament semi-final clash between the host South Africa and defending champions Brazil, and was sympathizing with our African brothers Bafana Bafana over their loss to the Samba Boys, despite the great performance they had put up during the game. I thought that loss would be the only thing I had to deal with that night until I switched channels to listen to some news on CNN and the breaking news that greeted me was one that was shocking. Michael Jackson had suffered a heart attack and been rushed to the UCLA with unconfirmed reports from TMZ.com that he had passed on.

A drug normally used in animals will be tested for its ability to control river blindness transmission in clinical trials in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ghana and Liberia.

African academics are to be given a total of £30 million (US$49 million) to spend on seven large North-South partnerships to boost health research capacity in their continent.

The news of the passing on of Michael Jackson, the 'King of Pop', has sent shock waves across the world. Though death awaits everyone, Jackson's transition is the type that sharply reminds the living of their mortality - that life ultimately ends in death, or what Plato, the great Greek philosopher, called freeing the soul from the "hateful" company of the body.

A two-day sub-regional meeting to promote women entrepreneurs in West Africa opened yesterday 30th June, 2009 at the Paradise Suites Hotel.