Southern Africa was the epicentre of the global HIV AIDS epidemic.

In sub Saharan Africa, the epicentre of the epidemic, 23 million people are infected, 57 per cent of whom are women.

Phuket, being the tourism epicentre of this tragedy, was chosen as the venue for this emergency meeting, upon the recommendation of the Government of Thailand.

On 12 August last year, Mr Zhang was a radio operator with a military fire brigade, stationed just a kilometre from the epicentre of the explosions.

However, five years later, despite the commitments of the international community and the existence of various policies and programmes to promote social and economic development, Africa remains at the epicentre of the crisis in achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

While the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been at the epicentre of regional crises since the mid 1990s, more recent developments raise hopes for the repatriation of refugees to some areas of the country, despite the postponement of the elections.