Albright kicks-off off three nation African tour

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on Friday praised the role South African women have played in transforming the country since apartheid ended, but she said more work needed to be done to empower women, the Associated Press (AP) reported. Albright arrived in South Africa on Thursday, the beginning of a visit to three African countries meant to highlight some of the democracies and economies flourishing on the continent.

“Like so many other parts of the world, women remain disproportionately poor, undereducated and underemployed, while suffering too much hardship, too much violence and now the agony of HIV/AIDS,” she told a breakfast meeting of South African female business and political leaders.

Later on Friday, Albright planned to meet with South African President Thabo Mbeki in Pretoria. They were expected to discuss the AIDS pandemic ravaging Africa and what can be done to combat it.

Mbeki has suffered withering international condemnation for entertaining the views of fringe theorists who doubt the link between HIV and AIDS and, in some cases, doubt the existence of the disease at all.
South Africa, with an estimated 4.2 million HIV-positive people, has the highest population of infected people in the world.