With rare exceptions -- including Botswana President Festus Mogae and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni -- few African leaders have done much to fight the pandemic that infects more than 25 million people on the continent. Kaunda, 77, hopes he can fill the leadership vacuum.

Liberalisation of economic policy had left people open to exploitation by multinational corporations, a report on how economic structural reform had contributed to the decline in living standards, has found. 'The Post' reported on Thursday that a study among workers of Nitrogen Chemicals of Zambia (NCZ) and Kafue Textiles of Zambia (KTZ) had noted that the government's privatisation policy - instead of contributing to economic growth - had only served to hamper production at the two plants and had not helped in sustaining existing state enterprises. The research was conducted by the Workers' Christian Movement - Kafue Estate Group.

Are people in low-income areas aware of the risks of drinking dirty water? What can be done to improve the quality of drinking water for poorer people? Researchers from Population Services International and the Zambian Society for Family Health report on the results of a survey in low-income neighbourhoods in Lusaka, Zambia.

The approach of World Refugee Day has prompted the Catholic Church in Zambia, which hosts the biggest refugee populations in the region, to issue a strong warning against xenophobia. "We are dismayed that politicians and civil servants sometimes produce statements which tend to foster rejecting our fellow Africans. General criminalisation of a social group is an expression of racism and xenophobia completely contrary to the law of God and the tradition of hospitality that the people of Zambia have always honoured," a pastoral letter released by the Catholic Bishops of Zambia said.

An independent tribunal on Monday began probing allegations of corruption and abuse of office against three senior Zambian ministers who are close aides to President Frederick Chiluba.

Zambia's Drug Enforcement Commission said Friday it had arrested three senior managers of one of the country's largest banks, who have allegedly been involved in money laundering, fraud and corruption.

Zambian police said on Thursday they had banned political rallies in light of a solar eclipse on 21 June and an Organisation of African Unity summit in July, Reuters reported. Opposition parties immediately rejected the ban as illegal and said they would ignore it.

Zambia's largest hospital began shutting down wards on Thursday, as a strike by thousands of civil servants continued to cripple government services. About 90 percent of Zambia's 90,000 civil servants embarked on the strike on 28 May, demanding that their salaries be doubled and their working conditions be improved. The government has offered 35 percent increases, the Associated Press reported.

The recent racial out-bursts by MMD national secretary Michael Sata are beneath the spirit of one Zambia one nation, Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) chairman, Simon Zukas, has observed.

A project in Zambia is examining how interactive radio instruction can help bring basic education and life skills to help address the crisis of AIDS orphans. In "interactive radio instruction," broadcast lessons are scripted so that listeners feel as if they are interacting with the radio teachers. EDC has been working in partnership with the Zambian Ministry of Education's Educational Broadcasting Service (EBS), churches, NGOs and local community groups to use this method to meet the desperate and growing needs of AIDS orphans.

Zambia's Anti-Corruption Commission said on Tuesday it had launched a probe into allegations two cabinet ministers used state funds to finance elections within the ruling party.

The Zambian president, Frederick Chiluba, has defied his own high court and expelled his vice-president and eight other cabinet ministers from the ruling party for opposing plans for a constitutional amendment allowing him to cling to power for another five years.

Zambia's vice president and 10 government ministers are to boycott a special ruling party congress meeting called to extend President Frederick Chiluba's rule.

Female Zambian politicians this week are holding a conference in Lusaka to define a strategy on how to rise the percentage of women candidates in the forthcoming Zambian legislative and presidential elections. Hurdles for women candidates are observed as being high.

Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services permanent secretary Susan Sikaneta on Friday tried in vain to deny the existence of rampant corruption in government.

The United Nations food agency has announced that 84,000 refugees who fled Democratic Republic of the Congo for Zambia are facing hunger amid dwindling food supplies.