Malawi

Malawian veterinary experts on Thursday said a ”heavy downpour of rains” caused thousands of migratory birds to drop dead, then to be eaten by locals, ruling out fears that bird flu may have reached the country. Malawi has not reported any cases of avian influenza.

Eleven people were killed and eight injured when lightning struck a church in northern Malawi where services were being held, hospital and church leaders said on Sunday. About 40 people had gathered in the Church of Central African Presbytery in Mzimba, about 300km north of the capital Lilongwe, when lightning struck on Saturday afternoon.

Malawi dispatched blood and tissue samples to neighbouring South Africa on Friday to be tested for avian influenza after thousands of migratory birds were found dead on a hill in the central Ntchisi district. Agriculture officials expressed alarm after local villagers started scooping up the dead fork-tailed drongos — known locally as namzenze — to eat earlier this week.

Malawi police on Tuesday fired on a mob outside the home of a Chinese businessman rumoured to have abducted and eaten a number of boys in the southern tea-growing town of Bvumbwe. Two people were rushed to a hospital after they were shot in the melee, said police spokesperson Willy Mwaluka.

Anglican leaders have rejected the appointment of a British reverend to head a diocese in southern Malawi over his support for gay rights, an official said on Friday. Bishops meeting in the capital Lilongwe last week found that reverend Nicholas Henderson was ”unsuitable for confirmation” as bishop of the diocese of Lake Malawi.

Two sisters from Napasha Village in southern Malawi wake up before the sun rises and start walking to the maize fields a few kilometres away. Along the way they stop to eat a slice of bread with the anti-retroviral medicine given them by the Malawian government.

Malawian police and members of a corruption-busting unit on Thursday searched the home of former president Bakili Muluzi, who is being investigated for alleged graft, his lawyer said. ”They took a few documents,” said Dave Kanyenda, a lawyer for Muluzi, outside Muluzi’s mansion in Limbe.

Malawi has temporarily suspended its Parliament after a violent protest by supporters of embattled President Bingu wa Mutharika, who faces the threat of impeachment. Speaker Louis Chimango suspended Parliament late on Monday after demonstrators smashed at least five cars belonging to opposition lawmakers.

The twin infants wrestle for their mother’s breasts as the young woman stops to catch her breath. Weak and exhausted she is standing in the shade of a large tree at the United Nations food distribution centre in rural Malawi, one of Africa’s poorest
countries.

A Malawian woman dies every hour during childbirth or complications during the process, the country’s health minister said on Monday, adding that the situation is ”tragic and obscene”. ”There must be something we are doing wrong,” Minister of Health Hetherwick Ntaba said.

Malawi’s police have jailed a former veteran opposition figure on charges of insulting President Bingu wa Mutharika, who was allegedly called a ”drunk” and a ”brute”, the man’s lawyer said on Wednesday. ”Gwanda Chakuamba surrendered himself to police this morning,” lawyer Viva Nyimba said.

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.

The United Nations has launched an appeal for -million to help 4,2-million people threatened by hunger in Malawi amid a general warning about looming shortages elsewhere in Southern Africa. Funding shortfalls mean that only a fraction of those needing food aid in Southern African countries will receive it.

Malawi is to close four of its 19 embassies and recall 35 diplomats from Canada, France, Kenya and Libya as a cost-cutting measure, the foreign minister said on Monday. Foreign Minister Davies Katsonga said ”financial hiccups” had forced the closure.

Up to 4,2-million Malawians face food shortages in the wake of a drought that reduced the poor Southern African country’s staple maize output by 24%, a report to assess Malawi’s harvest said on Tuesday. ”Malawi will require food aid of some 271 970 tonnes until the next harvest,” the Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee said.

Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika on Wednesday pardoned 413 prisoners convicted of minor offences to mark the country’s 41 years of independence from British rule, his office said. He also said that celebrations will be low-key, as the government wants to use the money to buy maize for Malawians in need of food aid.

Seven years after his death, Malawi’s government has started building a  000 (R3,7-million) mausoleum for its former president Kamuzu Banda, who led the poor Southern African country to independence and later proclaimed himself ”president for life”.

A former mayor and senior politician in the party of Malawi’s former president Bakili Muluzi was convicted on Monday for fraud and theft of public funds and sentenced to three years and two months in prison. John Chikakwiya is the ex-mayor of the commercial capital, Blantyre, and served as governor for the south.

Two journalists in Malawi were arrested on Tuesday and charged with publishing false information for reporting that President Bingu wa Mutharika had moved out of a newly built palace because he believes it is haunted. Mutharika angrily denied the reports when he returned on Saturday from a trip to Belgium, saying: ”I have never feared ghosts in my life.”