July 1, 2013.
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Motshabi Hoaeane.
Making headlines:

US President Barack Obama urges Africa to follow the spirit of Nelson Mandela.

The World Health Organisation says early HIV/Aids treatment could save 3-million more lives.

And, Egypt is locked in a standoff after millions rally against President Mohamed Mursi.

President Barack Obama said on Sunday the United States would help propel Africa along a path of prosperity and peace, and urged the continent to follow the example of Nelson Mandela.

The president, the first African American US head of state, said Mandela's struggle against apartheid paved the way for freedom and opportunity well beyond South Africa's borders, and has shown the US that one man's courage can move the world.

In South Africa on the second leg of a three-nation Africa trip, the US leader and his family visited the bleak former prison of Robben Island to pay tribute to ex-inmate and former president Mandela, and said that the visit to the Island was particularly powerful for him because he could share the experience with his daughters, Malia, 15, and Sasha, 12.

Obama also urged his audience at the University of Cape Town not to rest until more was done to eradicate poverty and disease and end government corruption and war. 

The World Health Organisation says doctors could save three-million more lives worldwide by 2025 if they offer AIDS drugs to people with HIV much sooner after they test positive for the virus.

While better access to cheap generic AIDS drugs means many more people are now getting treatment, health workers, particularly in poor countries with limited health budgets, currently tend to wait until the infection has progressed.

The UN health agency, in new guidelines aimed at controlling and eventually reducing the global AIDS epidemic said some 26-million HIV-positive people – or around 80% of all those with the virus – should be getting drug treatment.

Some 34-million people worldwide have the HIV virus that causes AIDS and the vast majority of them live in poor and developing countries. Sub-Saharan Africa is by far the worst-affected region.
 

Egypt was locked in a tense standoff on Monday after millions of protesters swarmed into the streets to demand the resignation of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi and militants set the ruling Muslim Brotherhood's headquarters on fire.

Young revolutionaries united with liberal and leftist opposition parties in a massive show of defiance on the first anniversary of Mursi's inauguration on Sunday, chanting "the people demand the fall of the regime".

The demonstrations, which brought half a million people to Cairo's central Tahrir Square and a similar crowd in the second city, Alexandria, were easily the largest since the Arab Spring uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

Meanwhile, Mursi, the most populous Arab state's first freely elected leader, stayed out of sight throughout the protests but acknowledged through a spokesperson that he had made mistakes while adding that he was working to fix them and was open to dialogue.

Also making headlines:

Former South African president Nelson Mandela's condition remains critical, but President Jacob Zuma says he hopes he will leave hospital soon.
 

US President Barack Obama says Zimbabwe’s economic recovery gives the southern African country an opportunity to advance but only if the upcoming elections are free and fair.
 

The US says is doesn’t feel threatened by the growth of trade and investment in Africa by China and other emerging powers.
 

And, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces battle to tighten control of central Syria.

That's a roundup of news making headlines today.