Malawi has sent a delegation to Washington to try and persuade the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to release crucial development aid frozen three years ago, officials said on Wednesday. Last October the IMF said it would soon resume disbursing $47 million outstanding from an aid package earmarked for the impoverished southern African country under its Poverty Reduction Growth Facility (PRGF) arrangement. Soon afterwards, the European Union (EU) and the Common Approach to Budgetary Support (CABS) - a group of European countries that support Malawi - also announced they would resume aid. But a senior government official said none of the donors which pledged support for Malawi last year had kept their word.

Elephants and humans have long found themselves at loggerheads in Africa, and Malawi is no exception to this trend. Communities in the southern Machinga and Balaka districts near Liwonde National Park have seen their crops destroyed by elephants, while some people have been trampled to death. This led to the construction of a perimeter fence around the 538 square kilometre park in the early 1990's. But, villagers are also exploring a more innovative way of keeping the elephants at bay: the planting of chilli pepper plants. Speaking from Liwonde National Park, Mathias Elisa - a Parks and Wildlife Department official who is responsible for education - said: "Observations conducted during chilli production revealed that elephants keep diverting from areas where the...production is being done. Elephants hate the smell of chilli, especially when the stems have been burnt. It appears they...distance themselves from where the chilli is growing,” he added.

Corrupt 'fat cats' continue to walk around with their heads held high even though they have been caught with their hands in the cookie jar. The consequences of their acts are set to remain a burden on this poor southern African country of more than 11 million people as it prepares to go to the polls in May. The problem began three years ago when Malawi's Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) arrested a number of suspects, after the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament audit report revealed K187 million (about 1.8 million dollars), meant for building schools and support infrastructure, went missing.

Malawi's chief election commissioner told reporters on Wednesday that voter registration for the country's May 18 general elections will be extended by another week due to low turnout and other glitches. "Almost half of the five million people on the voters roll have lost their certificates and need to have them replaced," George Chimwaza said, referring to papers given out before the last elections in 1999.

There are fears that men suspected of being gay in conservative Malawi will be placed under greater scrutiny - this as shockwaves from the recent consecration of a gay bishop in the United States make themselves felt in Africa.

The dispossession of widows - commonly referred to as 'property grabbing' - is one of the most prevalent and entrenched forms of violence that women experience in Malawi. This book presents findings of case-studies of Malawian women who have encountered dispossession of matrimonial property when their husbands died.

The small Southern African country of Malawi, with a population of just 11 million, has found itself at the heart of the AIDS pandemic. Health activists in Malawi have often pointed the finger at traditional beliefs and practices as being amongst the main catalysts for the spread of HIV. Now, officials, ethnic leaders and health workers are taking steps to transform these beliefs.

The Director of Public Prosecutions, Fahad Assani has attempted, very correctly to put matters to rights so far as the work and performance of one Frank Namangale, a journalist who was only trying to do his job at the Daily Times. It seemed the Police were keen to see him behind bars because the subject of his story was a relative of the State President.

The Child Rights Information and Documentation Centre (CRIDOC) seeks to provide access to information on child rights or related issues through documentation, research, website and/or other ICT models in Malawi.

Officers of the Malawi Police Service beat up six journalists on 18 October for attempting to take photographs of a scuffle between police and a motorist at a police roadblock on Zalewa road, between Blantyre and Mwanza districts.

Despite the much-touted existence of free primary school education which was introduced by the ruling United Democratic Front party in 1994, some primary schools in the country are said to be demanding that students pay K15 each every month to cater for water bills and watchmen’s salaries. It has been alleged that due to government’s failure to meet the costs the students are being asked to pay, according to The Chronicle newspaper.

With one in every 15 pregnant women dying from pregnancy and delivery complications, giving birth is risky business in Malawi. Doctors say women are dying as a result of loss of blood, inexperienced birth attendants and limited resources and drugs.

This paper describes the experiences of the Wildlife and Environmental Society of Malawi (WESM) in addressing the impacts that HIV/AIDS is having on the environment. The paper describes those impacts and the process the WESM has been through in order to mainstream HIV/AIDS into its work.

Alarmed by the dwindling numbers of its rare species of fish, locally known as chambo, the Malawi government has formulated a 10-year plan to restore the fish in Lake Malawi, and its largest outlet, Shire River.

The Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (Macra) has threatened to shut down privately-owned radio station Capital Radio, accusing it of carrying out an Outside Broadcasting (OB), contrary to the provisions of its licence. Capital Radio had invited political parties to air their rallies live.

Up to half of Malawi's professional workforce could die of HIV/Aids by 2005, the World Bank has said in a report timed to coincide with the opening of a major conference in Kenya on the pandemic in Africa. Professionals in the education and health sectors are particularly affected in the impoverished Southern African country, as are members of the army and the police, the study says.

Women activists in Malawi have waged war against child labour saying it is one of the many forms of violence that women in the country suffer from. In the fight against child labour - especially among the girl-children - women activists, educationists and entrepreneurs are using education as weapon to empower girls. They say the rampant violence in Malawi is partly due to the high levels of illiteracy among women and girls.

This is a report of the findings of Cost Benefit Analyses (CBA) of the gender disparities in literacy and access to agriculture services in Malawi, and the interventions to redress it and also of activities to reduce Gender Based Violence (GBV). The purpose of the study is to provide information to assist in advocating for and planning programs that are gender responsive, and thereby contribute to overall national economic growth and poverty reduction. The objective of the study is to estimate the incremental financial benefits of addressing the gender disparities. A review of the Malawi Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (MPRSP) process showed that there was no gender rationalization of the allocation of resources and the setting of targets.

"I would like to go for testing and know if I am positive - but I fear that if anyone knows that I have been for a test, they will conclude that I am HIV positive." This is the concern that Rose (not her real name) has about going for Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT).

Malawi's High Court on Wednesday effectively ruled the country's main opposition leader out of the running for next year's presidential elections. The ruling threatened to end John Tembo's long political career, deprive the Malawi Congress Party of a high-profile leader and undermine its chances in the polls scheduled for May 2004.