In a twist of realism, a new feature film, "Johnny Mad Dog", uses a cast of actual ex-child soldiers from Liberia to portray the violent lives of youth forced to participate in armed conflict.

WORLD Trade Organisation (WTO) boss Pascal Lamy has extended trade talks in Geneva with agreement on key issues still out of reach after four days.

Politics and Policy

Uganda's Nicollette will face off against Zimbabwe's Eric in the IDOLS final after Trinah (Zambia) fell during the final results show on M-Net (DStv Channel 101/2) last night (Monday July 21).

The International Criminal Court organized at the beginning of the month in The Hague a conference on visits to prisoners before asking the States Parties to take a decision on this issue.

Climate change has a profound effect on food security in Africa, as increasing temperatures and shifting rain patterns reduce access to food across the continent.

Kenya is among countries in the Horn of Africa facing a humanitarian emergency with more than 12 million people requiring urgent food aid and other assistance over coming months.

Change, as they say, is about the only constant in creation. It may materialise in the form of adversity or elation, hope or hopelessness, fortune or misfortune.

TRADITIONAL rulers and religious leaders across the continent yesterday attributed the alarming rate of maternal mortality in Africa to inadequate education received by women, before, during and after child birth.

THE Africa Development Fund is to fund a consultant for a Sexual and Reproductive Health programme.

Developing countries in the Global South, which have already introduced innovative technology such as mobile banking, need to drive the development of "eHealth" – the harnessing of Internet-enabled technologies to improve public healthcare, says Karl Brown, associate director of applied technology of the Rockefeller Foundation. He was interviewed by AllAfrica's Boakai Fofana, at a conference on the subject in Bellagio, Italy, which has been sponsored by the foundation.

The South African Government has donated 160 elephants to Lusenga Plains National Park in Zambia's Kawambwa Disrict.

African Synergy against AIDS and Suffering (African First Ladies NGO) has formed a strategic partnership with US Doctors for Africa (USDFA).

Researchers have initiated studies to establish whether antiretroviral drugs can effectively be used to block HIV infection. Scheduled to end at the close of next year, the study is now recruiting participants and will initially start in the US, with additional sites soon opening in Uganda and South Africa.

Civil servants across the Commonwealth could benefit from open distance learning (ODL) to create greater awareness of gender issues in their policies and practice.

Public Health & Education

AllAfrica's Boakai Fofana, based in Monrovia, is one of a few media professionals brought to Bellagio, Italy by the Rockefeller Foundation to attend an invitation-only international conference on harnessing Internet-enabled technologies to radically improve public healthcare. AllAfrica - where pioneering technologies have made our work possible - was an early advocate of exploiting web-based innovations for health. The AllAfrica Foundation is prototyping its HealthAfrica initiative with the planned launch of HealthLiberia, where a hospitable environment - including government commitment to public health and willingness to embrace innovative technologies - will make it possible to showcase the potential of the Internet to improve health, even in the most challenging conditions. Read about the initiative at HealthAfrica.org.

The persistent and increasing outbreaks of violence against members of the gay community in Africa are jeopardising efforts undertaken to combat HIV, both within this group and across the population as a whole, AIDS activists warned at a recent meeting in Limbé, Cameroon.

It is not yet clear how the univisa, or the SADC common visa, will look like or how it will operate and who will be eligible to get the document that is earmarked for use during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

A new report has revealed that every day, over 2.5 billion people suffer from a lack of access to improved sanitation, which refers to any facility that hygienically separates human waste from the environment.