Implementing a policy of routine opt-out HIV testing led to the diagnosis of 3000 HIV infections in children admitted to hospital in Lusaka over an 18-month period, investigators report in a study published in the online edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.

The World Health Organisation has called for governments to require all tobacco packets to have pictures showing the dangers of tobacco use. According to the WHO website tobacco is the only legalised product that kills when consumed as the manufacture intended. Tobacco has lead to more than five million preventable deaths every year – making tobacco a far worse killer than HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.

A three-year-old girl has died after being raped by a rebel fighter in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where armed forces are committing increasing numbers of sexual attacks, a United Nations spokeswoman said on Friday.

Madagascar's former leader Marc Ravalomanana rejected on Friday the jail sentence against him for abuse of office and accused the country's army-backed government of flouting rule of law. Exiled in South Africa, Ravalomanana called on the Malagasy people to unite in rejecting the leadership of new incumbent Andry Rajoelina, who led weeks of popular protests against him earlier this year and seized power with military