Caroline Mbewe, 14, would prefer to be in school, but instead is a domestic worker for an affluent family in Malawi's capital, Lilongwe. "My bosses treat me well but I don't want to continue working. I want to be like their daughters; I want to go to school," she told IRIN. As in the rest of the developing world, poor families in Malawi are often forced to send their children out to earn a wage rather than complete their education.

The recent 29 May polls in Malawi saw the number of women members of Parliament rise from 14% to 22%. About 125 women competed for the 193 seats, with 43 successfully gaining ground. For the first time since independence in 1964, Malawi also has a female vice-president, former Minister of Foreign Affairs Joyce Banda. However, this is still far from the 30% by 2005 target set by the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

Reporters Without Borders expressed its concern after the closure of privately owned opposition Joy Radio and the arrest of four staff, two of them journalists, accused of breaking election rules. The director of the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA), James Chimera, ruled that satirical programme, Chilungamo Chili Kuti? (Is there any justice?), broadcast at 2am after the closure of the official election campaign, had violated the law banning endorsement or ridicule of a candidate.

The Malawi Electoral Commission on Wednesday said declaration of results of the general elections had delayed because of confusion about where to send the final results, according to its chairman, Supreme Court judge, Justice Anastazia Msosa. She said returning officers from the constituency levels were sending the results directly to the Commission's tally centre instead of the constituency centres.

As Malawi prepares for elections in four days, The International Institute for Journalism, based in Ghana, has launched the first ever elections project for that country. The president of the institute, Kwami Ahiabenu, said it's designed to promote the use of ICT in generating election information.

A group of civil society organisations in Malawi is pushing for changes to the country's controversial social cash transfer scheme which has caused tension in communities as it attempts to separate the poor from the "very poor" in a country where some 65 percent of people live on less than a dollar a day. Pilot programmes to test the scheme are underway in seven of Malawi's 27 districts.

Malawi has printed its ballot papers in UK which arrived in the country on Wednesday. The ballot papers were printed in Birmingham where the parties were supposed to oversee the movement but they failed as they were told to foot their own bills. The country goes to poll on May 19 to elect a president and MPs.

An influential women rights organisation in Malawi, Women in Law in Southern Africa-Malawi (WILSA-Malawi), is suing the government of Malawi for preventing women from accessing safe abortion. Malawian law prohibits abortion - Section 149 of the country’s penal code says any person who administers abortion shall be liable to imprisonment for 14 years, while Section 150 indicates that any woman who solicits abortion is liable to seven years imprisonment.

Former Malawi President Bakili Muluzi appeared in the High Court in Blantyre on Thursday, but his lawyers asked for more time before the 66-year-old politician could take a plea. One of Muluzi's lawyers, Kalekeni Kaphale, told the presiding judge, Justice Mac Lean Kamwambe, that the Anti-Corruption Bureau only gave them the case file containing 80 counts on 4 March.

On 25 February 2009, the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) has temporarily closed Mzimba Community Radio Station, based in the northern part of the country, on grounds that the station did not comply with the regulatory body's rules and regulations as stipulated in the Communications Act.

Ex-Malawian President Bakili Muluzi has appeared in court accused of stealing $11m (£7.7m) in donor money. Mr Muluzi was charged on 80 counts of allegedly siphoning aid cash into his private account. The 66-year-old was arrested earlier after turning himself in to the Anti-Corruption Bureau in Blantyre.

The use of antiretroviral therapy (ART) by breastfeeding mothers greatly reduced the risk of HIV transmission to their infants after a 14-week course of infant HIV prophylaxis was stopped, according to a study performed in Malawi and presented to the Sixteenth Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) on Tuesday. However, ART use did not significantly reduce transmission risk in mothers with CD4 cell counts above 250 cells/mm3.

ActionAid International Malawi has fired over 30 employees amid reports of effects of the global economic recession on its programmes. ActionAid board chairperson Alick Msowoya told reporters last week they could not ignore the current global economic situation although some donors had not yet reneged on their commitments to the organisation. Msowoya confirmed the organisation fired 31 employees, bringing the total number of its staff to 56 across the country.

Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika picked Foreign Minister Joyce Banda on Friday as his running mate for the May presidential and parliamentary election. Wa Mutharika chose Banda, 67, who held several cabinet posts under former president Bakili Muluzi, over Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe, who is respected by the opposition and donors.

Malawi's former president Bakili Muluzi Wednesday presented his nomination papers to contest the 19 May presidential elections despite having served as president for two consecutive five-year terms. "The Constitution does not bar me from standing again," a cheerful Muluzi told journalists after presenting his nomination papers to the Malawi Electoral Commission chairperson, Supreme Court judge, Justice Anastazia Msosa.

Zimbabwe - where cholera has claimed more than 2,700 lives so far according to the Red Cross - is not the only southern African country facing increased disease as rains set in across the region. Malawi is also battling a cholera outbreak which has killed 19 people since the onset of the rainy season, an unusually high death toll. Up to 485 cases of the epidemic have since been registered and treated.

For the first time in years, John Phiri*, a health extension worker in Malawi's central Salima district, does not have to fill in a stack of forms during his monthly round of collecting data to monitor nutrition levels in the community. Now he whips out his mobile phone and texts the data, including the height and weight of the children in the area, while covering his beat.

This paper examines the effect of AIDS-related mortality of the prime-age adult population on marriage behaviour among women in Malawi. A rise in prime-age adult mortality increases risks associated with the search for a marriage partner in the marriage market.

It is estimated that up to 84% of Malawians earn their livelihoods directly from agriculture - it contributes over 90% to export earnings, 40% to GDP and accounts for 85% of total employment. While the advent of democratisation in May 1994 provided a rare opportunity to address the chronic imbalances in the patterns of land ownership and distribution, the major development strategies that the government has since implemented have shied away from addressing the land question.

The national ART scale-up plan contains several measures to promote equity, considering also that there are insufficient resources to cover everyone who is eligible. Thus study focused on four of these covering ART enrolment on an open ‘first-come, first-served’ basis; targeted gender-sensitive health promotion of ART, measures to overcome specific geographical barriers to access for remote populations and prioritisation of people already on ART, pregnant women and young children.