CAPE TOWN, 16 May 2013 (IRIN) - When Jean Baptiste*, a medical student from Lubumbashi, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), arrived in South Africa in September 2012, he headed straight for Cape Town, where he knew he would be able to stay with his brother. No one at the border told him that it was no longer possible to apply for asylum in Cape Town.

He has since approached the city's Refugee Reception Office (RRO) 18 times to try to secure an asylum seeker permit and become documented, but he has never made it past the security guards outside.

Heavy rains continued for a second week across previously dry areas in western Ethiopia and South Sudan.

1) Poorly distributed and significantly below average seasonal rainfall has resulted in deteriorating ground conditions since January. This has negatively impacted crops and livestock throughout many parts of southern Angola and northern Namibia.

05/14/2013 15:09 GMT

CAPE TOWN, May 14, 2013 (AFP) - One in ten South Africans is HIV positive but AIDS-related deaths are falling as ramped-up treatment begins to have an impact, the country's official statistics agency said Tuesday.

After years of dragging its heels on the HIV/AIDS crisis, since 2004 South Africa has developed the world's largest HIV treatment programme.

New data indicate that drive is working. The disease will be responsible for 32 percent of all deaths this year.

While still high, that is a dramatic fall from 48 percent in 2005.

This report covers the period 01/01/12 to 31/12/12

Overview

SADC Executive Secretary Dr. Tomaz Augusto Salomão, and the German Ambassador to Botswana & SADC, H.E Mrs Annett Günther, signed, on April 10, 2013, four agreements formalising support from the Federal Republic of Germany to the SADC Region. The agreements, totaling €44.2 million, cover commitments made in 2010 and 2011 under SADC-Germany Cooperation on the agreed focal areas of cooperation which include:

• Transboundary water management;

• Transboundary management and protection of natural resources;

• and Regional economic cooperation.

1) Poorly distributed and significantly below average seasonal rainfall has resulted in deteriorating ground conditions since January. This has negatively impacted crops and livestock throughout many parts of southern Angola and northern Namibia.

2) Little to no rainfall since the second dekad of March has been received across portions of eastern Angola, and western Zambia. Late season moisture deficits indicate an early departure of the southern Africa monsoon in the region and may affect crops planted late in the season.

JOHANNESBURG, 30 April 2013 (IRIN) - South Africa attracts the largest number of asylum seekers in the world, but grants refugee status to very few of them, ranking only thirty-sixth in the world for the size of its refugee population, which the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) puts at about 58,000.

As the magnitude and scope of the AIDS epidemic grew during the 1990s, it transformed the international development landscape: HIV/AIDS became a global development issue with socioeconomic implications for livelihoods, rather than an isolated health issue. In response to this crisis, the Regional Network on AIDS, Livelihoods, and Food Security (RENEWAL) was officially launched in 2001 as a joint project of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the International Service for National Agricultural Research (ISNAR).

States must mainstream a child’s rights-based approach to migration into national legislation, policies and practices, and consider the impact of migration on children in development frameworks.