Africa Renewal magazine, published by the United Nations, examines Africa’s development, achievements and challenges. It provides expert analysis and on-the-spot reporting to show how policies affect Africa’s people.

Africa News Report is a specialist information dossier dedicated to providing news information and analysis from a diplomatic and political perspective. Topics covered include some of the most pressing health, economic, political and social issues. Besides bringing its multi-facetted news, views and analysis to the fore, Africa News Report (America.gov) seeks to highlight the United States’ policies and positions on diverse issues affecting the African continent.

The Anti-Homosexuality Bill introduced in 2009 by MP David Bahati seeks to impose the death penalty on gay men who are HIV-positive for “aggravated homosexuality”. In Uganda today, homosexuality is already a crime punishable by a prison life term. This proposed law would not only condemn HIV positive gay men and "repeat offenders" to death, it would also jail for three years anyone who knows a gay man but refuses to report them to the authorities. In addition to that, anyone who defends gay rights in public will be sentenced to seven years in prison.

The lack of education and political will, poverty, out-moded traditional beliefs, to mention but a few, have been widely blamed for causing severe and sometimes unwarranted health catastrophies of genocidal proportions on the African continent. Child killer diseases, malaria, tuberculosis, water borne diseases, HIV/AIDS, among other preventable ailments have killed millions in their wake. As rightly said by the former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, on May 13, 2000 "More people (...) died of Aids in the past year (1999-2000, ndlr) in Africa than in all the wars on the continent".

The stakes are high as Southern Sudanese head for the polls to decide on whether or not they want to break away from the North. While the North-South tug of war is centred around oil and the Nile’s water, ethnicity and religion have proved to be the breaking point in a highly polarized country. As fear of war looms with the two sides amassing weapons, what is the role of regional players, including Ethiopia, Egypt, Eritrea, Libya and Kenya, who stand to lose or gain from Sudan’s split or union? And what about the international community, the African Union, the Arab League? Our series of articles highlight a troubled history of the Sudan and the Horn of Africa region, including their allies, and also tackle questions surrounding who stands to gain or lose from the pending referenda.

The following is a compilation of some scam letters, otherwise known as Advance Fee Frauds, Nigerian connection or 419 (named after a former section of the Nigerian penal code prohibiting activities of such nature). For more insight on the origins of these letters and how to recognise them so as not to fall prey to their devices a visit to the 419 coalition site could prove useful.

Afrik-News brings you the story of African football before, during and after the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Here, you can read not only about South Africa’s preparation to host the games on African soil for the first time but also individual African countries’ determination to take part in the historic event. Five African countries - Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria, South Africa and Ghana - are selected to join twenty seven teams from around the world to battle it out on the football pitch for the gold trophy. One by one, the African teams are eliminated, but Africans will not be bogged down as they rally behind their compatriots on the wings of the vuvuzela, a far cry from the near diplomatic row between Algeria and Egypt during the qualifiers. Ghana are the last team to leave but not before African unity becomes reality...

Alerted on the subject of prostitution among Africans, a growing trend in Europe and Africa, by various groups, Afrik decided to react. The following articles highlight not only testimonies on female prostitution but also child and male prostitution.

A woman’s virginity is one subject that holds a very high place in most African cultures. Among other repercussions for the loss of virginity before marriage are, social rejection, excommunication from family, a bleak future... Faced with this dilemma, it is quite obvious that the subject of virginity is very delicate. Afrik.com explores the arguments of those who oppose this tradition as well as the peculiar world of virgins, ex-non-virgins and non-virgins to better understand the reasons for their drive for hymen repair.

It’s time to see who the contenders are: who’s going to win and who’s not, who’s going to upset a few teams… January 10-31, Angola is the place to be for football fans!

In the past year alone, food prices have shot through the roof while other household essentials have undergone unprecedented price hikes. Coupled with a global financial meltdown, this situation has been mostly harsh on African countries. The Haiti food riots which began in April, 2008, spread like wild fire to Egypt, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Cameroon... According to experts, this situation was in part created by careless government policies, the rising popularity of bio-fuels as well as the global financial crisis, among other factors...

The 21st century will be or not be religious. This Malraux prophecy is being fufilled: the impact of religion on political, economic, financial and social spheres is making front page news. Observatory of Religions’ (L’observatoire des Religions) perspective, that is; the observation, analysis and commentary of religious issues in a current affairs framework, is purely unreligious. L’observatoire des Religions was created by Philippe Simonnot, economist and author of numerous works on history and economics.

Jammeh Yahya, a former soldier in The Gambia Armed Forces, deposed President Dawda Jawara of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) on 22 July, 1994, in a bloodless coup. He has since won all elections conducted in the West African nation. Jammeh’s supporters see him as a great pan-African leader whilst his critics argue that he is an eccentric dictator

The senator of Illinois is currently running for the White House but first of all he has to win the Primaries

The 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China takes place between August 8 and 24. This dossier focuses on the hopes, aspirations, and achievements of athletes from the African continent.

Teams representing 47 countries are split into 12 groups of four. The best team from each group automatically qualifies to take part in the 26th edition of the African Cup of Nations football competition which takes place in Ghana.