In Sotho there is a saying, “Matlo ho cha mabapi” — a fire at a neighbour’s house is likely to spread to yours. Look no further for proof of the proverb’s wisdom than how the chaos north of the Limpopo has rippled into SA . The Basotho are silent, however, on the consequences of a fire started by a neighbour. And fire is exactly what SA is about to unleash on its poorer neighbour in the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu).

Access to mobiles phones has transformed the lives of rural women farmers boosting income and expanding knowledge, a pilot study in Lesotho has found. Three years ago, Evodia Matobo, then 62, a small-scale poultry farmer in Lesotho's rural lowlands, was stacking plastic containers to feed her chickens. Now she talks about "feeders, agricultural shows, workshops, experts."

Lesotho's drive to test all of its citizens age 12 or older for the virus that causes AIDS fell short of its goals, both in carrying out the program and in safeguarding the rights of those tested, said Human Rights Watch and the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa in a new report.

British police will not investigate a construction company accused of corruption in Lesotho, they have said. British firm Mott Macdonald were implicated in an audit of a dam project in the southern African kingdom. But the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has said it will not be looking into the accusations, two years after they received them.

Reporters Without Borders notes that Lesotho’s only privately-owned radio station, Harvest FM, was allowed to resume broadcasting yesterday after being suspended for three months. The station was forced to close on 21 July as result of a complaint by a police commissioner and a communications ministry official, who accused it of trying “to damage their dignity as individuals.” The country’s telecommunications authority said it failed to comply with broadcasting regulations.

Reporters Without Borders has written to the head of the Lesotho Communications Authority asking him to reverse his decision to close privately-owned radio Harvest FM for three months.

According to the UNICEF Humanitarian Action Report 2008, there are 16,000 children aged under 14 living with HIV in Lesotho and an estimated 180,000 children orphaned or made vulnerable by AIDS. Some of these children have been forced by the circumstances to head their families and yet there is no programme in place to educate them about HIV.

The southern African nation of Lesotho has become the fourth country assisted by the United Nations-backed Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to receive funds from the consumer-driven (PRODUCT) RED initiative. (RED), which gets a portion of the sales of sponsoring products for proven HIV projects in Africa, was launched in 2006 by Irish musician Bono and Bobby Shriver, nephew of former United States President John F. Kennedy.

The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists in over 120 countries, calls for all charges against Lesotho journalist Thabo Thakalekoala to be dropped. These charges include High Treason, a charge that carries the death penalty. According to information before IPI, Thakalekoala was arrested on 22 June 2007, shortly after completing a morning broadcast for Harvest FM Radio.

For 14 years, Mathabo Mabekhla was one of Lesotho's most successful entrepreneurs. Her ladies' clothing boutique sold dresses, blouses and slacks imported from neighbouring South Africa, and boasted a client base that included cabinet ministers and their wives. But dwindling sales forced her to shut down last year, for which she blames the country's growing community of Chinese retailers. "Chinese are selling very cheap and not good quality things, and they are killing Basotho businesses," said Mabekhla, 59.

The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists in over 120 countries, calls for all charges against Lesotho journalist Thabo Thakalekoala to be dropped. These charges include High Treason, a charge that carries the death penalty. According to information before IPI, Thakalekoala was arrested on 22 June 2007, shortly after completing a morning broadcast for Harvest FM Radio.

The basis of this policy-paper is a combination of qualitative analysis of interviews with stakeholders in 2004-2005 completed with a critical review and analysis of available literature on human trafficking, especially of women and children in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is intended to serve as a tool for advocacy and awareness-raising to fight human trafficking in Lesotho, with concrete recommendations to be implemented by a wide range of actors working to fight human trafficking in Lesotho (including the government, international and local organizations).

The hunger of the seemingly healthy and well-groomed school students at Moruthane Secondary School, about 80km south of Lesotho's capital, Maseru, is at first not apparent, but as the morning progresses they become listless and their concentration lapses. Their teacher, Nigerian national Yemi Ajijedidun, 32, told IRIN, "They are not bad students; they are bright, but they are hungry."

The Regional Office for Africa of the International Cooperative Alliance (http//www.ica.coop) is organising a Co-operative Gender Forum on November 12 to 16, at the Maseru Conference Centre in Lesotho.

This regional conference organized by the EISA will be held from 25 - 27 September in Maseru, Lesotho. The primary goal of the conference is to promote regional dialogue on election related disputes and share experiences across countries in terms of best practice in managing them.

A group of prominent and renowned church leaders in Lesotho showed their commitment to promote dignity, equality and rights of all people, especially those living with HIV/AIDS in front of King Letsie III and Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili. They also pledged to discuss openly issues around HIV/AIDS - treatment, shun negative statements that the disease is a divine punishment as well as break negative cultural barriers.

The impoverished African kingdom of Lesotho has declared an official food crisis after bad harvests left more than 400,000 people in need of food aid, a U.N. agency said. The United Nations' Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Lesotho's government had declared a food security emergency based on U.N. reports showing a "major food gap" affecting a fifth of the population

A regional chairperson of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa), Thabo Thakalekola, was on Monday night released from jail in Maseru on R1 000 bail, following his arrest last Friday by the Lesotho mounted police on charges of treason.

Despite being a signatory to the United Nations Protocol against trafficking in persons, Lesotho is still seen as a fertile ground for human traffickers, migration bodies hold. All the countries in the southern Africa region except Angola, Swaziland and Zimbabwe, had ratified the protocol.

Lesotho’s billion-dollar Highlands Water Project involves the construction of a series of massive tunnels and dams to take water from the Senqu/Orange River to South Africa’s industrial heartland, Gauteng province. Lesotho receives annual royalties from the sale of its water, and some hydro-electric power. The first testimonies from a highland community due to be submerged under the waters of one of the dams were gathered in 1998 as part of Panos' mountains project