Celebrities can cause considerable change in society. Little wonder you have the likes of celebrated soccer star Kalusha Bwalya getting involved in the measles campaign, late Princess Diana in the land mine crusade and Bono in debt relief for developing countries, and the list is endless. Having realised the grand impact that celebrities give in effecting social change, the ministry of Labour and Social Security which has been working in close collaboration with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in the fight against child labour in Zambia, have identified local celebrities to help in fighting the scourge. They have picked on two local artistes, St Michael (Michael Zulu) and his wife Sista D (Daputsa Nkhata-Zulu) to be their child labour ambassadors in Zambia.

Vice-President Nevers Mumba has declared that Zambia shall conquer corruption the same way colonialism was conquered. And the US government has committed US $1 million to enhance Zambia's fight against corruption. Officiating at the Transparency International Zambia (TIZ) stakeholders' workshop on a comprehensive anti-corruption strategy, Vice-President Mumba said the hour had come for Zambia to get rid of corruption.

A former military commander in Zambia was arrested and charged with corruption for allegedly engaging in illegal business deals while serving under former president Frederick Chiluba, an official said on Wednesday. General Wilford Funjika, former commander of the Zambia National Service (ZNS), was arrested for corrupt practices on Tuesday and detained along with a private businessman, Anuj Rathi, said Mpazi Sinyangwe, spokesperson for the taskforce on corruption.

Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa has had an uneasy relationship with civil society from the beginning of his term in office. However, matters worsened recently when he accused AIDS activists of monopolising the funds provided by donors to fight the pandemic. Mwanawasa told a two-day AIDS conference attended by United Nations officials and cabinet ministers from across Southern Africa that most civil society groups were composed of family members who got donor funding under the guise of AIDS prevention programmes. He also lashed out at the United Nations for favouring civil society in the distribution of AIDS funds.

From pre-independence Zambia to independence from British colonial rule in 1964, in times of the slave trade as well as the fight for independence, Zambian women and young girls have faced discrimination and violence at the hands of the slave traders, the state, the community and family. Every year, thousands of Zambian women face violence from their relatives when their husbands die. Most Zambian women and children suffer violence in their home and most cases are not reported to the police.

The world is "in the middle of a political momentum" to fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Executive Director Peter Piot said last Thursday in Livingstone, Zambia, at the opening of a meeting of representatives from U.N. agencies and the ministers of health, education and finance from six Southern Africa countries - Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe - AFP/Yahoo! News reports.

Government has extended the probe into corrupt practices to all structures of the public service and warned civil servants with dubiously acquired properties to prepare for questioning. Vice-President Nevers Mumba said in Lusaka that the fight against corruption had been extended to the whole public service and all civil servants owning questionable properties would be called to account.

President Mwanawasa has maintained that austerity measures effected in this year's Budget are not meant to punish the public service workers. The President said the move was in fact an effort to ensure that Zambia reached the Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) completion point.

A motor bike-donated by the German Embassy; at least 50 people to attend to on a 'good day'; the nearest village being 13km away for house-calls and no anti-retroviral drugs to give some of his patients who desperately need them, is what one medical officer in the remote area of Shiwa'ng'andu (lake of Crocodiles) in the Northern part of Zambia has to contend with on an almost everyday basis. “What can I do really, as I have to almost literally split myself to attend to various health matters in the villages, do sensitization programs, attend to patients at the Shiwa Hospital and of course try and spend time with my family,” says one jovial Joshua Musabaka whom this writer had the pleasure to meet during an HIV/AIDS sensitisation workshop held in Chief Mukwikiles' area recently.

Commissioner for refugees Jacob Mphepo has expressed concern at the Rwandan refugees’ resistance to being repatriated under the voluntary exercise. Speaking at the official opening of a workshop for refugees protection staff and partners in Lusaka, Mr Mphepo said the refugees’ defiance was a source of concern.

Former Zambian president Frederick Chiluba on Monday appeared before two different courts on corruption and theft charges but both cases were adjourned due to disorganisation in the prosecution team. Chiluba, accompanied by his wife, Regina, first appeared before a magistrate's court on charges of stealing $4-million from the nation's Treasury together with his former director of intelligence Xavier Chungu, but the trial once again failed to take off.

Lecturers at Zambia's biggest university will not teach this year unless their wages and allowances are increased, a union official said on Monday. Thomas Mabwe, acting president of the University of Zambia Lecturers and Researchers Union (Unzalaru), said lecturers would not take part in any academic activities when the university opens next week for the first semester of 2004.

The cholera epidemic in Zambia has forced the World Food Programme (WFP) to suspend 107 of its 179 school feeding programmes. WFP spokeswoman Lena Savelli told IRIN on Monday that the decision to "suspend the feeding in these schools follows reports from government and local media that these areas are affected by cholera". In its latest situation report, WFP noted that the cholera epidemic continued to record casualties. "On 12 February, the Minister of Health issued a public notice declaring urban Lusaka and Mpulungu District (in the Northern Province) infected areas," WFP said. "To date, more than 110 people have died from the disease and a further 2,100 people have been infected."

The cholera epidemic in Zambia has forced the World Food Programme (WFP) to suspend 107 of its 179 school feeding programmes. WFP spokeswoman Lena Savelli told IRIN on Monday that the decision to "suspend the feeding in these schools follows reports from government and local media that these areas are affected by cholera".

Striking Zambian unions described their nationwide stayaway on Wednesday against tax hikes and wage freezes as "successful". Sylvester Tembo, secretary-general of the Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), told IRIN that 90 percent of workers in the public sector had heeded the strike call.

Zambian debt relief monitors have raised concerns over alleged irregularities in spending on poverty relief under the donor-supported Highly-Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. The independent HIPC Tracking and Monitoring External Team, investigating the use of the funds saved under the debt relief programme, identified alleged abuses involving top civil servants in a report released last week.

The second trial of former president Frederick Chiluba has been adjourned for two weeks after a request from the state's new prosecution team. President Levy Mwanawasa suspended the chief prosecutor last month after accusations he mishandled the first of the two corruption cases.

Zambian workers have threatened to hold nationwide demonstrations and picket parliament to protest higher taxes introduced in the 2004 budget, labour leaders said on Tuesday. "We shall paralyse government operations through mass demonstrations," said Joyce Nonde, president of the Federation of Free Trade Unions of Zambia (FFTUZ). No date was given for the planned protests.

On 3 February 2004, the media and public were barred from attending hearings of a tribunal investigating allegations of professional misconduct levelled by President Levy Mwanawasa against Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Mukelebai Mukelebai. Judge Esau Chulu, the tribunal chairperson who sat with Judges Philip Musonda and Charles Kajimanga, ruled that the proceedings would be held in camera, despite an application by Mukelebai's lawyer, Vincent Malambo, that they be open to the public.

A “hideous cycle” of food shortages, poverty and HIV/AIDS in Zambia has left about one million children orphaned and a growing class of people destitute, aid agencies say. “The HIV/AIDS pandemic in Zambia deserves to be treated as an emergency which has and will continue to have impact on poverty and food security levels,” Lena Savelli, information officer for the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) in Zambia, told AlertNet.