In company news and analysis, FirstRand partners China Construction Bank in Africa, and the contracted Chinese firm will replace faulty SAT-1 at no extra cost to Nigeria.

In this week's news on cooperation, visits and exchanges, Chinese special envoy visits Senegal, Nigeria's commerce minister set to visit India, and Liberia cooperates with China to improve its law system.

In this week's roundup of trade, investment and development news, a Delhi firm wins $100 mn Ethiopian sugar factory contract, China funds US$1.2 billion project for revival of agriculture in Angola by 2012, and South Africa's wool exports to China are set to hit a new record.

The government is investigating whether a nationwide shortage of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs led to the reported deaths of HIV-positive people in northern Uganda this month. Health workers in Apac district reported that at least 17 people known to have been HIV-positive died over the past month after failing to receive their life-prolonging medication due to supply shortfalls.

Thousands of people took to the streets of Maputo, capital of Mozambique, and the country's second city, Beira this week, to protest the government's closure of day care hospitals for HIV-positive patients. In Maputo, activists handed Health Minister Paulo Ivo Garrido a memorandum slamming the decision, which they said was a setback in the national response to the epidemic. An estimated 16 percent of Mozambique's 21 million people are living with the virus.