Ministers for gender and women’s affairs from southern Africa have endorsed the contents of a Gender Protocol that would make regional decisions on gender equality legally binding for the first time. The protocol contains several measures to address the attainment of commitments to gender equality, justice and women’s empowerment in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

A new testing method will make it possible for babies below the age of 18 months to be accurately screened for HIV. Infants up to this age still carry their mother's antibodies and, using the usual testing method, can test HIV positive when, in fact, they are negative.

For the first time in Zambia, men having sex with other men (MSM) will have a government endorsed assessment aimed at identifying their existence and sexual behaviour in relation to HIV and Aids. This is done to draw the government’s attention to health issues faced by MSM in that country.

On 19 July 2007, police in Lusaka prevented Q-FM, a private radio station, from mounting their Outside Broadcasting (OB) equipment to cover live a demonstration organised by the OASIS forum and Collaborative Group on the Constitution, outside the gates of Parliament. Police said that the permit issued to the conveners of the demonstration did not include mounting the OB unit for live coverage of the event.

The level and longevity of protective antibodies elicited by a measles vaccine is significantly shortened by HIV infection in Zambian children, according to the findings of a prospective study published in the August 1st issue of the Journal of Infectious Diseases. Measles immunisation programs may have to consider repeated vaccinations in areas of high HIV-1 prevalence.

Zambia's decision to keep borrowing could slip the country back into indebtedness even before social expenditure improves, civil society activists have warned. Zambia had its US$7.2 billion external debt slashed to about $500 million, as a reward for sticking with economic reforms under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.

African nations are used to being plundered - the West perfected the art. Now the new scramble for Africa's resources is coming from the east. With a voracious economy to feed, China is devouring raw materials - oil, copper, cobalt and zinc. And it is wooing governments, including those who trample on human rights, with soft loans, aid and arms sales.

Zambia's Information and Broadcasting Services Minister Mike Mlongoti threatened to revoke an operating license for Petauke Explorers, a local commercial radio station in Petauke district in the eastern province of Zambia for featuring the president of one of the leading political parties in an on-air paid for interview.

Following the Launch of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) policy, the Zambian government has pledged to provide an enabling environment to allow more private sector participation in the ICT sector.

Chinese Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan and his Zambian counterpart George Mpombo agreed Wednesday to further expand cooperation between the two countries' armed forces. In his talks with Mpombo, Cao said the people of China and Zambia enjoy a traditional friendship and support each other. Since the establishment of diplomatic ties, the two countries have conducted fruitful cooperation in the political, economic, cultural and other fields.

The Zambian government is under increasing pressure from business and labour to increase its mineral taxes in the wake of surging copper prices on the world market but, ­analysts say, a revision could lead to litigation. Copper prices on the London Metal Exchange have shot to record highs of about $8 000 per metric tonne -- from the average of $1 200 six years ago -- in what is considered the biggest base-metal bull market in 50 years, fuelled by strong demand from China and India.

A London high court has frozen the assets of Zambia's former president Frederick Chiluba after he was convicted last month of stealing $46-million in state funds, according to court documents obtained by AFP on Tuesday. The Zambian government obtained an injunction to freeze Chiluba's assets in London in order to prevent the ailing Chiluba and 18 of his cohorts from disposing of their properties, according to the court order.

A Zambian court ordered former President Frederick Chiluba on Thursday to stand trial on corruption charges on August 14, rejecting arguments from his doctors and lawyers that he was too ill to be prosecuted. "We should proceed with this matter to help all the other parties involved and also considering the period of time it has taken since the matter was last heard," Magistrate Jones Chinyama said in a ruling issued in Lusaka.

The Zambian Employment Act states that employers must grant a woman 120 days of maternity leave after two years in employment, but most employers today will not fire a female employee who falls pregnant before two years. Rather, either they will give them unpaid leave, annual leave or sick leave. For the Zambia Army, which in the past never entertained employing women as soldiers, the story is different.

Malaria diagnostics are grossly underused and there is widespread over-treatment for malaria in patients with negative test results in Zambia, according to the findings of a cross-sectional survey published in the May 23-30th edition of the Journal of American Medical Association. The study calls for the provision of new tools to reduce the overuse of expensive antimalarial treatments and recommends a major change in the treatment of fever in patients without malaria.

Zambia has shut down a Chinese-run mine because of its contribution to air pollution which threatens the health of hundreds of residents of nearby townships, an official said on May 14. Chiman Manufacturing Limited, which mines manganese, was indefinitely closed on May 11 for failing to put in place air pollution control mechanisms, said Justin Mukosa, spokesman of the Environmental Council of Zambia (ECZ), a statutory regulator.

Zambia will seize funds and properties belonging to ex-president Frederick Chiluba and his associates if they fail to pay back $46 million siphoned from the Treasury, a minister said on Wednesday. Chiluba said last week that a British judge's order that he personally return $41 million stolen while he was in office "bordered on racism". Chiluba has denied the charges.

A London High Court Judge, Peter Smith, on Friday found the former Zambian President, Frederick Chiluba, guilty of stealing US $46 millions from the public coffers. Mr Chiluba was tried in absentia, but his assets might be frozen. The civil suit was brought against him by Zambia’s Attorney General.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has provided educational kits to jump start the educations of 60,000 school pupils in six flood-ravaged provinces of Zambia. UNICEF has donated 640 ‘school-in-a-box’ kits to the Southern African country’s Ministry of Education. Each box contains such items as flipchart pads, markers, pens, crayons, erasers, exercise books, rulers, pencils, chalk and chalkboards.

UNHCR has launched a three year voluntary repatriation programme to help Congolese refugees in Zambia return home to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. UNHCR plans for up to 20,000 of the 61,000 Congolese in Zambia to return in 2007. The initial convoy, carrying 414 refugees, drove 400 kilometres from Mwange Refugee Camp in the north of Zambia to the Zambian port of Mpulungu where they overnighted.