- In the last few years, droughts and floods have been taking turns in ravaging the southern Africa region. Untold suffering has been wrought on inhabitants of this economically struggling region especially among the rural dwellers. Whereas casualties in human life have received immediate sympathy, damage to plant diversity has perhaps not received corresponding response. Yet, according to experts, natural disasters have damaged plant genetic diversity. In the process, even indigenous knowledge that has been passed on from generation to generation is also lost together with homesteads that have stood in particular locations for ages. Ms Thandie Lupupa, the acting Director of the SADC P…

- This follows government’s impounding of more than 2000 bottles of Selenium at the Lusaka International airport from Canada more than seven weeks ago. Selenium is regarded as one of the strongest treatment of HIV/AIDS, according to a study conducted by the Harvard University. The study was conducted in Nigeria. Howard Armistead, the director of Sam Medical Products which supplies Selenium in Zambia says there is panic among people who have been receiving the therapy and responding very well. He said that there are currently about ten thousand people taking the therapy. The Zambia Pharmaceutical Regulatory Authority impounded the selenium saying it was not registered in Zambia. But ac…

- The Zambian government has selected Dr. Inonge Mbikusita Lewanika, a veteran woman politician and diplomat as its candidate for the position of African Union (AU) Commission. The elections for the position of the AU Commission chairperson will be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in January 2008. Mbikusita Lewanika is currently the country’s Ambassador to the United States of America (USA). Lewanika, who holds a PhD in Early Childhood and Education-Teacher Educator and a Masters Degree in Education and Psychology, once headed an ill-fated opposition political party called Agenda for Zambia before joining the current ruling party, Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD). From 1991 to 2…