Madonna’s mission to help Malawi’s Aids orphans remained shrouded in mystery on Friday with a scheduled meeting between the pop star and a government minister failing to take place. The celebrity made a secretive visit to an orphanage near the capital, while rumours that she was to adopt a child persisted.
Malawi president Bingu wa Mutharika on Thursday demanded the resignation of a top prosecutor for withdrawing corruption charges against the nation’s former president. Director of Public Prosecutions Ishmael Wadi last week unconditionally dropped all 42 counts of corruption, fraud and abuse of office filed by the Anti-Corruption Bureau against former president Bakili Muluzi.
The village headman of Mphandula, Malawi, has never heard of Madonna, the pop star. But he knows Madonna the philanthropist. Madonna has announced plans to raise at least -million for programmes to support the nearly one million children in Malawi who have lost parents to Aids.
Malawi’s former president Bakili Muluzi was arrested on Thursday on fraud and corruption charges amid questions about millions of dollars in donor funds that allegedly ended up in his personal account. A team from the state Anti-Corruption Bureau took Muluzi to their office in the commercial capital, Blantyre, for over an hour of questioning before releasing him, his lawyers said.
Veteran politician Chakufwa Chihana, who rallied opposition to the iron-fist dictatorship of the late Hastings Kamuzu Banda, died in South Africa early on Monday after an unsuccessful attempt to remove a brain tumour, the government and relatives said. He was 67. He died at about 8am at Johannesburg’s Garden City clinic.
Veteran politician Chakufwa Chihana, who rallied opposition to the iron-fist dictatorship of the late Hastings Kamuzu Banda, died in South Africa early on Monday after an unsuccessful attempt to remove a brain tumour, the government and relatives said. He was 67. He died at about 8am at Johannesburg’s Garden City clinic.
Malawi’s embattled Vice-President Cassim Chilumpha was arrested on treason charges on Friday night, after a court prevented the government from firing him, his lawyer said. Chilumpha is accused of conspiring with members of his United Democratic Front party to topple President Bingu wa Mutharika’s government.
Having experienced a disastrous harvest last year — the worst in a decade, according to the United Nations World Food Programme — Malawi now appears set to improve its food situation.Agriculture officials were earlier this week reported as saying that a maize harvest of 2,4-million tonnes was expected shortly, thanks in part to good rains that had ended months of drought.
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/ 25 December 2005
Heavy storms and flooding displaced hundreds of villagers this week in two drought-stricken southern Malawi districts, officials said on Saturday. Two tributaries of the Shire River burst their banks in Nsanje, flooding five villages, District Commissioner Tobby Solomoni said.
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/ 3 September 2005
A 25-year-old woman has been arrested for allegedly hacking her nine-month old son to death with an axe and attempting suicide after they both tested positive for the Aids virus, police said on Friday. Police spokesperson Enock Livason said the woman and her son had tested positive for the virus at a government hospital.