Twelve-year-old Woinishet Wujura's dedication to her gardening duties would be surprising in someone her age, but the land she is tilling has been a lifeline for her and her family because the farm is run exclusively by and for women and children affected by AIDS. The farm, called 'Gordeme', is part of a successful urban gardening project that started in 2004 and now has several farms across Ethiopia, all managed and maintained by about 10,000 women or children.

An angry mob of Muslim students in northern Nigeria beat their teacher to death on Wednesday for allegedly desecrating the Qur'an, police and witnesses said. Oluwatoyin Olushekan was attacked and killed by the mob in Gandu Secondary School in Tudun Wada district, northern Gombe state.

Aids patients in Zambia are abandoning their life-prolonging drugs in exchange for bogus cures that have hit the market in recent weeks, a leading HIV/Aids advocacy group said on Monday. The Network of Zambian People Living with HIV/Aids (NZP+) said it has received reports that some of its members were stopping the use of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) for fake cures being promoted in the media.

Zimbabwean police say opposition leaders Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara and more than 40 other activists arrested last week are not allowed to leave the country until their case is finalised in court, a newspaper reported Monday. Mutambara, who leads a breakaway faction of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was arrested at Harare International Airport on Saturday as he tried to leave the country to visit his wife in South Africa.

Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa has sacked his junior Lands Minister, a close ally, in a corruption crackdown aimed at stopping illegal allocation of housing plots, a presidential aide said on Monday. Deputy Lands Minister Moses Muteteka, who is married to a niece of Mwanawasa's wife Maureen, was sacked over allegations of illegal allocation of housing plots, press spokesperson David Kombe said.