- There are suspicious discrepancies in the numbers of South American poison arrow frogs reported in international trade, according to a new study published in the journal Biodiversity and Conservation.
Vincent Nijman of the Oxford Wildlife Trade Research Group and Chris Shepherd of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia analysed international trade records reported to CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) between 2004 and 2008 in poison arrow frogs species native to South and Central America.
They uncovered a number of discrepancies in the data. Kazakhstan, for example, reported no trade whatsoever in poison arrow frogs, but between 2004 and 2…
- The European Union (EU) Delegation to Malawi has releases ¤ 15.9 million – approximately MWK 3.3 billion – to assist Malawi in preventing future food crises.
The assistance falls under the EU's Food Facility, an initiative which aims at strengthening the productive capacity and governance of the agricultural sector in more than 40 developing countries. The facility includes measures that will help prevent further food insecurity situations.
In 2008, soaring food prices and energy crises put numerous developing countries and their populations in a serious predicament as prices of food, fuel and fertiliser increased significantly, jeopardising the progress that had be…
- Malawi Netball team popularly known as Queens says it is prepared to defend its number five World rank ahead of the 2010 Commonwealth Games to be held this coming October in Delhi, India.
Netball Association of Malawi President Rose Chinunda says they have received an invitation by their rivals South Africa Netball team for a two match strengthen test to be held next month.
The International Federation of Netball Associations (IFNA) website says that South Africa netball team have been warned that they should topple Malawi at all costs or risk not going to the Commonwealth Games. Reacting to the reports, Chinunda, says they will not let that happen.
"We want to continue to b…
The United States Ambassador to Malawi Peter Bodde has hailed the Commercial Court Division of the Malawi High Court for among other things improving the process of settling business related disputes. - Speaking when he presented $100 000 worth of reference materials, computers and internet service equipment to the court’s library in the city of Blantyre, Ambassador Bodde underscored the need for the state of the art equipment and books which he said “is one step toward ensuring better practices in rule of law and transparency.”
He added that an understandable and transparent commercial legal framework is an absolute requirement for the new investment that will drive th…
- Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini announced in December that he intended reviving the practice of circumcision among young Zulu men in response to recent studies showing that circumcised men are 60 percent less likely to become infected with HIV through sex than uncircumcised men.
More than a million of the estimated 5.5 million HIV-positive South Africans live in KwaZulu-Natal, the province with the highest HIV prevalence.
"The King is concerned about the HIV/AIDS toll on his nation. The delegations are discussing how circumcision could be adopted as government policy before it is introduced in government hospitals," said Ndabezinhle Sibiya, spokesman for the KwaZulu-Natal P…
- Africa investor (Ai), a leading international investment research and communications group, has concluded its prestigious 2010 Africa investor Tourism Investment Summit. The Summit convened over 400 delegates and over 70 diverse high-level speakers from both business and government.
The Summit was opened by H.E. Robert Mugabe, the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe and attended by leading Ministers, including those responsible for economic planning, finance, mines, transport and infrastructure development, energy, environment and natural resources, state enterprises and parastatals, to name a few.
The Summit’s Leaders’ Panel was chaired by Geoff Lipman, Special Advis…
- Health officials are considering a radical shift in the war against HIV and Aids that would see everyone tested for the virus and put on a lifetime course of drugs if they are found to be positive.
The strategy, which would involve testing most of the world's population for HIV, aims to reduce the transmission of the virus that causes Aids to a level at which it dies out completely over the next 40 years.
Brian Williams, professor of epidemiology at the South African Centre for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis in Stellenbosch, said that transmission of HIV could effectively be halted within five years with the use of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs).
"The epidemic of HI…
US embassy in Malawi has joined the ever growing list of users on the social networking website Face book which has over 400 million users worldwide. Ambassador Peter Bodde presided over the launch of the U.S. embassy facebook page at the Public Affairs Section auditorium where he "pressed the button" to publish the page for public access. - The embassy expects the Facebook page to be a valuable resource for the public to keep track of the Embassy's activities and events, and to stay on top of U.S. Government policy initiatives that are relevant in Malawi and across Africa.
Over 30 journalists from various media organizations attended the launch. Speaking at the launch, Am…
All chiefs from Chewa tribe in Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique are expected to gather at a meeting aimed at reviewing their customs which dispose people to high infections of HIV and AIDS. Former vice President of Malawi, Dr. Justin Malewezi disclosed. - “The king of chewa, Kalonga Gawaundi has recently give a directive to all chewa chiefs to review all Chewa customs, to see which ones dispose people to high infections and then to see ways and means of either adjusting those customs or even abandon them,” Malewezi said.
Dr. Malewezi who is also Gawaundi’s ambassador in Malawi said all the major tribes have got their practices but the chewa are probably the ones that have …
- Consumption meat and meat products may be necessary for the good health of a human body, but Maximino Chibayo a Malawian who hails from a village on the Malawi Zambia boarder, meat is simply un affordable for his family.
“I last ate meat four months ago,” he declared when interviewed in his home village recently.
Maximino was born in August 1975 and hails from Nzikaola Village, T/A Mlonyeni in Mchinji District very close to villages surrounding a Chewa Traditional Authority Pembamoyo of neighboring Zambia.
“I exchanged 145 bananas from my garden with half a kilogram of pork about four months ago. That is the last time my family and I had meat,” Chibayo r…
- Blackman’s Church for African Presbytery now popularly known as Church of African Presbyterian (CAP), penetrated in the country after a break a way of the trio reverends from protestants, Livingstonia Synod of the CCAP.
The Church, CAP hierarch ranges from prayer houses whose head is an Asher, then to a congregation, presbytery and finally a Synod whose administrations are Moderators, Secretaries and Treasurer’s with their deputies.
Currently, the church has only one Synod called Ching’oma because its Headquarters is at Ching’oma area in Nkhata Bay District of the northern region part of Malawi; a District that covers an area of 4, 071 square kilometers with…
- Deforestation in Malawi is taking its toll on the economy. The country is said to be loosing MK36 billion (US$338 million) a year as a result of power cuts, which is blamed on environmental degradation.
Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi Limited (ESCOM) says the country is losing MK1 million a day due to power interruptions which is still being experienced through out Malawi.
According to environmental experts, the problem of power cuts are caused by silt, which makes it impossible for the turbines at the main power station located in Malawi’s largest river, the Shire River, to generate power. It is because of deforestation along the Shire River and other rivers that run into…
- Government of Malawi is loosing about MK1 billion every year due to lack of regulating and taxation on charcoal burning says a report financed by the Malawi Forest Governance Learning Group (FGLG), the community Partnerships for Sustainable Resource Management in Malawi (COMPASS 2) and the Improved forest Management for Sustainable Livelihoods Programme (IFMSLP).
“All charcoal production in the country is currently illegal according to existing legislation but if charcoal was regulated and taxed, Government could raise substantial revenues,” says the report.
It says the four largest urban cities, Blantyre, Lilongwe, Zomba and Mzuzu has an estimated value of MK5.78 billion, ro…
- In 1774 Edmund Burke gestured to reporters in the House of Commons in England and said, “There are three Estates in Parliament; but in the Reporters’ Gallery yonder, there sits a Fourth Estate more important far than they all.”
He was acknowledging the contribution the press made in society, even though it was not as free as it is today.
A handbook titled, ‘Undue Restriction’ which focuses on Laws with restrictive impact on the media in nine member states of the SADC region, says that Malawi is one of the countries that has not taken the required steps to ratify international human rights instruments in its domestic law.
Despite various attempts in cr…
- Most indigenous Malawians depend on maize as the staple food, at the expense of a variety of other crops. This has narrowed the food resource base for most communities. Bambara groundnut which is more resilient to environmental extremes than other crops of the same taxon can be grown as a major food crop in Malawi.
University of Malawi, Bunda College of Agriculture crop Science Lecturer, Ceasar Mkandawire says Bambara groundnut needs to be publicized to enhance production and its utilization as a hunger mitigating crop.
Although the SADC grain and legume feasibility study of 1984 ranked Bambara groundnut among the top four most important legumes, In Malawi the crop, is however associat…
- Charles Manjanja is a tobacco farmer. He has lived his entre 35 years in his home district of Dowa doing farming.
During all these years he has been using methyl bromide to kill nematodes on his tobacco nursery. Unfortunately, Manjanja is now being told to stop using methyl bromide because of its effects on the environment. He has since been asked by agricultural experts to start using alternatives, which are now available on the market.
After being convinced why he should abandon methyl bromide and switch on to alternatives such as Basamid and Herbifune, Manjanja gave in to pressure.
Today, Malawian farmers have joined thousands of others the world over in abandoning the use o…
- Chris Makaniki, pseudo name went for a voluntary counseling in the year 2005 and was found with AIDS virus, as time pass by he did a CD4 count testing and was recommended to start taking life prolong drugs, ARV’s.
Despite doctors explanation on how he can live longer especially with a combination of nutritious foods and AIDS drugs he has opt for careless by continue having sexual intercourse with people without any protection.
This behavior is a concern not only to government and Health experts as Principle Secretary for Nutrition, HIV and AIDS, Dr. Mary Shawa says the nation can be wipe in a short period of time and systematically if not careful and that it is very crit…
- You might hear before about Malawi's bittersweet love affair of expatriate coaches and local football but hundreds do not know that John Vart was the last Englishman to play in Flames.
This was about five years ahead of the historical Malawi National team victory in the East and Central African Senior Challenge Cup.
Speaking to African News reporter through his electronic mail, Vart who is currently staying in the United Kingdom (UK) said his talent was identified whilst playing in Malawi at a local club called Limbe Toyota; which is now popularly known as Telecom Wanders aka Manoma.
At club level, he played a pragmatic brand of football drawing on a combination of you…
