Today marks five days until the Opening Ceremony of the London Olympics. Many U.S. citizens will be attending the Games, and I had the opportunity to engage with some of those individuals last week during a Twitter Q & A. I received many thoughtful questions, and much of what we discussed also applies to any U.S. citizen traveling abroad. Here are 10 useful tips for travelers:

• Sign up for the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) so the State Department can better assist you in an emergency: Let us know your travel plans through the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program, a free online service. This will help us contact you if there is a family... more »

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 By Rhoda Omenya, Anne  Salim and Albert Otieno At iHub Research, we have begun an inventory of all the applications that have been created by Kenyans for use in Kenya. With so many applications (apps) being developed by the hour, there has been a need to have a central reference point, where developers and consumers [...]

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As one would hope and expect, the opening session of AIDS 2012 featured considerable excitement over the International AIDS Conference's return to US soil after 22 years, following the lifting of the ban on visitors living with HIV in October 2009. Interestingly, the celebration also brought forward some not so subtle and slightly amusing competition for credit. According to which speaker was at the podium, you could have guessed the true hero was alternately Congress, the Bush administration, and/or the Obama Administration.

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Public health experts are divided about the reality of turning the remarkable scientific "treatment as prevention" results into effective and high coverage country-level programs any time soon. International AIDS Conference attendees and others who follow these issues in the media are likely to hear strong opinions on both sides about how quickly the many implementation challenges can be addressed. In this blog post, CSIS presents some of the challenges that need to be addressed before widespread use of "treatment as prevention" can be recommended.

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This is an exciting and promising moment in the global effort to eliminate new HIV infections among children; we can finally see the possibility of eliminating mother-to-child transmission of HIV. To address the current status of these efforts and the way forward, the heads of WHO, UNICEF, and PEPFAR joined with ministers of health from Africa, representatives from the Global Fund, UNAIDS, UNITAID, the private sector, and women living with HIV at CSIS on July 22. The full video of the event is available at new.livestream.com/unicef.

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It is the summer vacation for students in Addis Ababa where family-oriented indoor and outdoor special activities aren't in abundance. But that doesn't mean there are not things to do for the youngsters in the city. Here, brothers and sisters are shown playing billiards in a bar near the Shi Solomon Supermarket in front of [...]

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It is the summer vacation for students in Addis Ababa where family-oriented indoor and outdoor special activities aren't in abundance. But that doesn't mean there are not things to do for the youngsters in the city. Here, brothers and sisters are shown playing billiards in a bar near the Shi Solomon Supermarket in front of [...]

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In advance of the XIX International AIDS Conference -- AIDS 2012 -- CSIS celebrated the release of the special supplement of the Journal of AIDS focused on PEPFAR. Organized in cooperation with the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC), the event featured contributing authors and guest editors who are leading figures in PEPFAR and the international HIV/AIDS community. The roundtables engaged in fascinating and wide-ranging discussions of the successes and challenges of PEPFAR, from its inception to its future.

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By Jessica Achberger

Many employers have followed with interest and concern the changes to the Zambian minimum wage, first published in the Government Gazette on 4 July 2012. The Times of Zambia reported on 12 July that for some categories, the wage increases would be as much as 100 percent. Domestic workers' salaries, for instance, have been raised from K250,000 to K420,000 in basic pay per month.

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Eita everyone, I apologise for my absence, but I have been out of SA for a few weeks. We all know the expression, 'you don't know what you have got till it is gone'. Well, all I can say is - as fantastic as the break was, I really am happy to be back...yes - [...]

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