Pambazuka News 295: Zimbabwe: Is this the year?

On the 2,000th day since Eritrea's "Black Tuesday" crackdown on media in 2001, Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF) urged Eritreans abroad to demand explanations for the imprisonment of at least 14 journalists, four of whom are feared dead.

Arrested and detained on the eve of this year's international women's day, 42 Gambian sex workers were automatically excluded from the celebrations. And to add salt to their injury, the courts jailed them to serve a week in prison for violating section 167 of the Criminal Code, which outlaws vagabond and roguish life.

Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was on Tuesday taken to hospital after sustaining heavy injuries during torture while in police detention.

The Alexandria Appeals Court ruled against an appeal filed by the attorney of Egypt's first convicted blogger, Abdel Kareem Suleiman, who was sentenced to four years in prison for "insulting Islam and the President of Egypt". His lawyers said they would appeal the judgment at the court of cessation.

After failing to persuade its young people to change their sexual behaviours, the South African government have announced a five-year plan to cut by half the number of new HIV infections in the country. South Africa has one of the world's highest HIV infection rates.

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