KENYA: “Good” mould to the rescue

Photo: Wikimedia Commons The Kenya government announced in May that some 2.3 million 90kg bags of maize were contaminated with aflatoxin - file photo

NAIROBI, 7 June 2010 (IRIN) - A deadly fungus that has blighted thousands of tonnes of maize in Kenya could be defeated by introducing a less dangerous cousin to crops while still in the field, say scientists.



"The bio-control technology works by introducing strains of the Aspargillus flavus fungus that do not produce the aflatoxin, or 'the good guys', into the affected fields, which outcompete and drastically reduce the population of the poison-producing strains, or 'the bad guys'," according to a statement released by the Agriculture Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA-ARS), the Africa-based International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), and African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF).

SOUTH AFRICA: Drug resistance, alcohol and money

Photo: Julius Mwelu/IRIN Treating drug-resistant TB can take up to 24 months

DURBAN, 4 June 2010 (PlusNews) - A complex mix of issues drives drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) patients to default on medication, not least of which are alcohol and money, according to new research presented by Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF), the international medical charity, at the South African TB Conference in the east-coast city of Durban.



When 22 percent of drug-resistant TB patients defaulted on treatment at one of MSF's clinics in the Cape Town township of Khayelitsha, despite access to services such as

DRC-CONGO: Security improves for DRC refugees

Photo: UNHCR/F. Noy Thousands of refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo are living in Betou, Republic of Congo (file photo)

MOMBENZÉLÉ, 2 June 2010 (IRIN) - Humanitarian access in Impfondo, in the northern Likouala region of the Republic of Congo (ROC), has improved following the reinforcement of security, say officials.



Impfondo is hosting about 120,000 refugees from neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), who fled fighting between the Enyele and Munzaya communities over land and fishing rights in the Dongo area of Equateur Province in late 2009.



"There has been an improvement since late March. Security has been restored and humanitarian [officials] including UN agencies can take aid to the people in this region," said Daniel

BURKINA FASO: Young girls at risk as they join exodus to cities

Photo: Nancy Palus/IRIN Children in Burkina Faso

LOUTA, 4 June 2010 (IRIN) - Migration in search of work has long been common in Sourou Province, northern Burkina Faso, but the trend is increasingly for younger girls to join the exodus, according to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the NGO Terre des hommes (Tdh).



"Migration is after all a method of survival," Herman Zoungrana, head of Tdh's protection programme in Burkina Faso, told IRIN. He said traditionally after the harvest people would fill up their granaries then set out to find work until the next planting season.



"But with younger and younger girls migrating, the risk of exploitation and violence grows," he said. Residents told IRIN in many cases parents encouraged their children to migrate – "because here we live in misery", as one woman put it.



Boys and young men in the region have also long migrated for work,

Evo Morales hopeful of restabilising full relations with Washington

President Evo Morales Zoom Image

Morales made the statement during a press conference at the same time that Deputy Secretary of State for Hemispheric affairs, Arturo Valenzuela was holding talks with Bolivian Foreign Affairs minister David Choquehuanca.

“Let’s hope we can advance with this new framework agreement for full diplomatic, trade and investment relations. We are hopeful that the visit from the US government representative can help us advance these negotiations”, added Morales.

The first elected indigenous Bolivian president had had a complicated relation with Washington and only 24

Egypt’s Brotherhood loses in parliamentary vote

CAIRO (Reuters)

The Muslim Brotherhood said on Wednesday it would back a drive by former U.N. atomic watchdog head Mohammed ElBaradei to reform Egyptian politics after the group secured no seats in a vote to parliament's upper house.



Egypt's biggest opposition group, which controls a fifth of the lower house seats but none in the Shura Council upper house, said it would help ElBaradei collect signatures for change, a move bound to boost his efforts to gather a million names.

Tuesday's Shura Council vote for a third of the seats was marred by abuses reported by rights groups and independent monitors, a common feature of

SOUTH AFRICA: Sports stars urge men to "do the right thing"

Photo: Brothers for Life Do the right thing

JOHANNESBURG, 1 June 2010 (PlusNews) - A team of top South African and international sportsmen will lend their star power to a campaign that promotes HIV prevention, and relegates violence against women and children.



South African football players Matthew Booth and Teko Modise, rugby captain John Smit, cricket captain Graeme Smith and international football stars Ryan Giggs of Manchester United and Lionel Messi of FC Barcelona have already signed up.



These sporting talents will be Sports Ambassadors for Brothers for Life, a national campaign encouraging men to take a