United Nations aid agencies have again appealed to donors to step up assistance to the estimated 200,000 refugees in Zambia, who have seen their food rations halved in the last two months due to the lack of funds. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Monday said it was "extremely concerned" and warned that the deteriorating situation was likely to impact on the health of the refugees.

Zambian president Levy Mwanawasa has instructed his lawyers to sue opposition Patriotic Front leader Michael Sata for defaming him as corrupt, the official Zambia Daily Mail said on Sunday. Darlington Mwape, the president's special assistant for legal affairs, was quoted as saying that Sata has defamed the president by alleging that he is corrupt. A statement issued by Mwape Saturday said Sata had alleged on Radio Icengelo that the president had acquired eight farms and equipped them with combine harvesters and tractors since he came into office in early 2002.

Zambia's main opposition, the United Party for National Development (UPND), will demonstrate against the government's decision to delay a new constitution until after elections in 2006. "We are planning to stage non-violent demonstrations with civil society throughout the country because of President Mwanawasa's recent statements that we cannot demonstrate against his decision to enact the new constitution in 2008," UPND spokesperson Patrick Chisanga told IRIN.

Deputy Minister of Commerce Trade and Industry Geoffrey Samukonga has caused a stir at the "Zambia Daily Mail", "Times of Zambia" and Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) by accused the news organisations of tarnishing his image. According to the "Zambia Daily Mail" of 25 November, Samukonga threatened to have the newspaper's managing editor, Godfrey Malama, fired if he did not dismiss chief reporter Patson Phiri, who he accused of writing stories against him.

Two Evelyn Hone College student union leaders were arrested yesterday for allegedly instigating violence at the institution, contrary to section 91 (b)(c) Cap 87 of the laws of Zambia. Several other students who attempted to march to the ministry of Science and Technology to protest against the alleged increment of tuition fees next year were blocked by the police. The students started their demonstrations on Sunday night after word went round that the college management intended to hike the fees next year. They have been released on bond.

A long awaited hydrological and monitoring network for Zambia's Itezhi Tezhi Dam is finally in place, following a three-year initiative to improve water flows in the Kafue Flats. The dam for years has disrupted natural flooding and destroyed biodiversity in ancient wetlands, but the network now is to restore this valuable habitat.

An ambitious project to clear deadly land mines from a wildlife sanctuary in southern Africa is being launched in a bid to give thousands of elephants and local villagers new hope. The announcement was made during the Nairobi Summit for a Mine-Free World taking place at the headquarters of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The $1 million project initially aims to clear mines, sown during the Angolan civil war, to help restore an ancient elephant migration route linking Botswana with Zambia and Angola.

The heads of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and World Vision have joined forces to urge a massive increase in donor funds for school feeding - a largely untapped yet effective way to attract children to school and stem HIV/AIDS infections among the young. There is growing evidence linking the level of education to a stable or lower incidence of HIV. For instance, research shows that AIDS spreads twice as fast among uneducated girls in Zambia, while young rural Ugandans with a secondary education are three times less likely to be HIV-positive than those with no education.

"It is very clear that the colossal debt stock of the world's impoverished countries - to which category Zambia belongs - owed to the industrialised nations, including those debts from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank are beyond repayment. Indeed the harsh effects of this huge debt-overhang has not spared Zambia. Our nations have, through further policies of the IMF and the World Bank, been condemned to perpetual debt repayment when it is clear that this is unsustainable. The creditor nations together with the agents of neo-liberal policies - the IMF and World Bank - do not care that the little resources that our poor nations may generate for any little possible investment towards improving health, education and other key social sectors is instead perpetually diverted towards debt repayment. But for how long will this continue?" - From The Post, Zambia.

At independence, copper-rich Zambia seemed set to become one of sub-Saharan Africa's richest countries. Today, after almost three decades of continuous intervention by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), it is one of the poorest. Externally-imposed policies have included trade liberalisation, removal of legal restrictions on prices and amount of competition between businesses (deregulation), privatisation, subsidy cuts, reducing public-sector job opportunities and cuts in salaries. The consequence of this - a spiralling debt, very slow economic growth, destruction of key industries and social crisis - needs urgent attention to stop the situation from further deterioration.

Zambia's former president Frederick Chiluba was in the dock last Thursday as a new corruption trial began over the alleged theft of $488 000 (about R3-million) of state funds by him and two businessmen. An immaculately dressed Chiluba sat for more than four hours, hearing evidence by the first three witnesses called to provide testimony on corruption against the three accused.

From the 10th -14th December 2004, Lusaka, Zambia will be host to a multitude of Africans as it holds the Africa Social forum with the theme, . The organisation of the forum is being handled by Women for Change and the organising committee of the African Social Forum of Southern Africa. The forum aims to be a space for discussion, reflection, mutual consolidation and democratic debate. It is important for Africa that this Forum continues to be the instrument of growth of African social movements and of vigilance in relation to the policies conceived and implemented on the continent.

Western countries have continued to restrict and protect their markets to be accessed by the Third World and this has caused a reduction in trade among developing nations, Finance Minister Ng’andu Magande has said. Mr Magande said if the rich countries had opened up their markets to developing countries, there could be US$ 700 billion of South-North flow of products.

The Zambian government has defended its decision to ban an NGO because its activities pose "a danger to state security". The Southern African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (SACCORD) was informed of the government's decision via a short letter from Minister of Home Affairs Ronnie Shikapwasha. In the letter to SACCORD, a copy of which was faxed to IRIN, Shikapwasha says he has "noticed with displeasure that your organisation has engaged itself in activities which are [inimical] and a danger to the state security" and that, in accordance with the Societies Act, "I have decided to de-register your organisation with immediate effect".

The Human Rights Commission has strongly condemned the forced marriage of a 14 year old girl in Ntantumbila area in Nakonde in Northern Province. Commission chairperson Mumba Malila stressed that all children under the age of 15 years have, under article 24(2) of the constitution, the right to be protected against physical or mental ill-treatment and all forms of neglect and exploitation.

Media workers in Zambia have again demanded enactment of the Freedom of Information Bill, more than two years after the proposed law was withheld for "wider consultation". Press Association of Zambia Vice President Amos Chanda told IRIN on Tuesday that journalists would lobby for the bill to be brought before the current session of parliament, which began earlier this month.

The U.S. Agency for International Development plans to give Zambia $24 million to combat AIDS and malaria and improve the quality of drinking water, the U.S. embassy in Lusaka, Zambia, said last Tuesday in a statement, the Associated Press reports. The money will be used to fund health education programs - coordinated by the government and the Society for Family Health - over the next six years Zambia on Tuesday banned free condom distribution in schools just as USAID announced its funding for HIV/AIDS programs, with condom distribution a "key part of the strategy," Reuters reports.

A leading women's advocacy group in Zambia has appealed to health authorities to spend more funds on improving maternal care. An increasing number of women have died during childbirth in recent years. The latest figures from the 2001/02 Demographic and Health Survey (ZDHS) indicated 729 deaths per 100,000 live births, significantly higher than in neighbouring countries. Lumba Siyanga, the acting executive director of the women's advocacy NGO, Women For Change, said pregnant rural women were made increasingly vulnerable due to the lack of access to reproductive healthcare and the low quality of treatment.

Refugees from neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) who fled to Kilwa Island in northern Zambia earlier this month have refused to relocate to refugee camps, according to local authorities. Provincial Minister Kennedy Sakeni said the estimated 3,000 Congolese who had fled insecurity in Katanga province preferred to stay on Kilwa Island in Lake Mweru, hoping the situation would return to normal, but were in dire need of food.

A World Conservation Society (WCS) project in eastern Zambia's game-rich Luangwa valley is helping to transform poachers into farmers and entrepreneurs. The key is the use of food aid to persuade poachers to turn in their guns and join Conservation Farmer/Wildlife Producer Training Centres (CTCs), established by WCS to teach sustainable farming methods. WCS is linked to the Bronx Zoo in New York.