Bad news follows Bush in Botswana

FRESH US bloodshed in Iraq dogged President George W Bush yesterday as he ventured into Africa’s AIDS heart of darkness, telling Botswana that Americans wept for its victims of the killer virus.

Bush flew into Gaborone from South Africa to highlight his emergency $15 billion plan to combat AIDS and spotlight Botswana's diamond-fuelled economy, viewed by Washington as a rare African example of good governance.

Smiling broadly, Bush was serenaded at the airport by a school choir and bobbed in time to the beat of a traditional marimba percussion band.