Eighty-seven people have died of cholera in Mozambique since the beginning of the year, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported on Tuesday.

Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano warned on Monday that, since the "Earth Summit" held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, there had been "a lack of political will to make available the resources necessary for the balanced and harmonious development of the planet". Speaking at the opening in Maputo of a Special Session of the Conference of African Environment Ministers, Chissano said that, despite all the commitment expressed verbally at Rio, "we are still witnessing a pattern of development that steps up the unsustainable use of natural resources".

Mozambique has established a "poverty observatory" to monitor its national plan to reduce one of the world's highest levels of deprivation. The observatory will collect and analyse data on poverty to track the plan's progress. The country's first report on progress towards the Millennium Development Goals, released last year, spells out the challenges: nearly 70 per cent of Mozambique's 17 million people live below the poverty line, subsisting on less than 40 US cents a day.

The Mozambican government renewed on Sunday its commitment to improve conditions for a healthy and harmonious future for the country's children. The announcement was made by the country's President, Joaquim Chissano, in the central city of Beira, during a ceremony to mark International Children's Day. Chissano acknowledged that there are still many Mozambican children who are deprived of their fundamental rights.

Maria Dosiole Qalquer is in her 60s. Her daughter died of AIDS in 1995 and a month later, Maria’s son-in-law died too. In part Maria survives on the income she makes by breeding from the goats she received as part of HelpAge International’s support scheme. Living Together is a community-based programme in Tete province, Mozambique that supports the rising numbers of older people who are bringing up orphans. It helps them to make ends meet and send the children to school. HelpAge International has developed this two-year programme with UNICEF.

The strong and divergent views Mozambicans have about a range of practices like polygamy, early marriage for girls and the male's position as the automatic head of the household, surfaced to public attention when a draft Family Law was introduced into parliament at the end of last month. The discussions in parliament over the draft followed countrywide debates, seminars and meetings held from as far back as 1982 with people from all walks of life, including women's and religious groups.

Real spending on poverty reduction is falling, too little money goes to the poor north, and officials lie in their reports, a government report on Mozambique's implementation of its anti-poverty programme posted on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) web site says. In particular it notes that the government promised to increase poverty spending as a share of GDP, yet the government's own figures show that spending fell from 19.1% of GDP in 2001 to 18.4% of GDP in 2002. The biggest cut was in education. Read more about this report, about women and cashew nut production in Mozambique and about new revelations regarding the assassination of former Mozambican President Samora Machel.

The current HIV prevalence rate among Mozambican adults is 14.6 per cent, Deputy Health Minister Aida Libombo told the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Wednesday.

Corruption is the fundamental cause of underdevelopment in Mozambique, according to Assistant Attorney- General Isabel Rupia, who heads the anti-corruption unit in the Attorney-General's Office.

NDI seeks a short-term Political Party Advisor in Mozambique. The political party development program provides support to parliamentary parties, focusing particular attention on equipping political parties with skills and techniques that will enable them to participate effectively in the upcoming local elections scheduled for October 2003.

Last month Gina Manganhela, a domestic worker, began to feel sick. She suffered aching joints, fever, headaches and lacked appetite. She suspected the beginning of a vicious bout of influenza that had already hit members of the household where she worked, in the heart of the capital, Maputo. "Educating people about malaria is key in the fight against this deadly disease," said the director of the government's malaria programme, Dr Samuel Mabunda. "As soon as people experience symptoms of malaria, they must go to the nearest health facility to be tested. Malaria kills very quickly."

Mozambique's main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo, is once again threatening to sabotage the debate by the country's parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, of a bill designed to introduce new measures in the fight against corruption.

Zimbabwe and Mozambique have been placed on a very high alert for risk of increased malaria transmission and possible epidemics within the next few weeks. The World Health Organisation's Southern Africa Malaria Control Programme based in Harare has warned of a crisis resulting from cyclones and floods which hit the region in February and March.

Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano said in Maputo on Monday that the state needs the cooperation of the private sector for more schools and better quality education. Speaking during the inauguration of the new premises of one of the country's private universities, the Higher University and Polytechnic Institute (ISPU), Chissano stressed, however, that the state would not simply allow private schools to work as they saw fit.

Visibly traumatised, Antonio Manuel, 10, goes to Mahele primary school, a remote part of Maputo province, where the Mozambican capital, Maputo, is situated. Manuel, a shy boy, uses both his hands to hold a pencil as he writes in the exercise book. His fingers - on both hands - are joined together after his stepmother placed his hands on top of a hot stove. Manuel was only four when the accident happened.

The International Monetary Fund said although Mozambique had generally achieved success in reducing poverty, progress was uneven across the country. In its latest assessment of the government's performance, the Fund urged authorities to decentralise responsibilities and fulfill earlier promises of allowing greater budgetary autonomy for municipalities.

Mozambique and Denmark signed in Maputo on Monday a memorandum of understanding for further cooperation in the area of agriculture, particularly for the National Agriculture Development Programme (PROAGRI).The Danish programme to support Mozambican agriculture is budgeted at 278 million Danish Crowns (about 79 million US dollars) to be used over the 2000-2004 period.

There is a general complaint in Southern Africa that there is a lack of laboratories, no science apparatus and no chemicals. But in this article, Keith Warren of the Eduardo Mondlane University in Mozambique argues that this is the wrong way to view the situation. People have become accustomed to seeing problems and complaining, he says. But there is an alternative - to find opportunities. Warren describes how he and his colleagues have used simple local resources - such as a few nails and a yard of wire - to teach children basic scientific concepts and transmit some knowledge and confidence to the country's younger generation.

Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano has expressed fears that the negative impact of the United States-led war on Iraq may divert the attention of Mozambique and of Africa as a whole from their main priority, which should be the fight against poverty, reports Friday's issue of the daily paper "Noticias".

About 141,000 children, aged between five months and five years, and 71,000 pregnant women in 22 Mozambican districts seriously affected by drought, are being supplied with soya as a food supplement, aiming to reduce levels of malnutrition.