At last we hear that some money has been released from the Global Fund, says this editorial in The Chronicle newspaper. It has been over a year that the amount of US$196 million dollars in funds to fight TB, Malaria and HIV/Aids was approved. The excitement of the funds being received was evident. Almost every meeting on HIV/Aids that was held by officials after the announcement of the funds being approved referred to how important the funds would be in the fight against the epidemic.

Many Malawians living with HIV/AIDS are forced to rely on illegal drugs in a bid to treat opportunistic illnesses, ease suffering and prolong their lives. Some of the fake drugs have flooded the country's parallel market with a potentially disastrous health impact.

A household-level recovery from the past year's food security crisis in Malawi is being complicated by deepening levels of poverty, observers say. In a recent interview with IRIN in the capital Lilongwe, World Food Programme (WFP) country representative, Gerard van Dijk, said "poverty, combined with HIV/AIDS" had worsened household vulnerability.

The ruling United Democratic Front in Malawi has threatened to deal with "The Nation" newspaper reporters and warned the paper not to cover its convention scheduled for August 8, 2003.

Civil society networks are recognised almost universally as essential promoters of democratisation. What makes a coalition of civil society organisations (CSOs) effective? What role should international NGOs play in fostering alliances of local CSOs? Should local networks pursue international advocacy?

Three journalists have been ordered to pay a fine of K450, 000 (approx. 5 000 US dollars) to Stanbic Bank Malawi managing director Victor Mbewe, his wife and Stanbic Bank as compensation for a defamatory story the paper ran in December 2002.

Editors from private media houses met in Blantyre, to discuss political violence against journalists. The meeting held under the auspices of the media watchdog the National Media Institute of Southern Africa was convened to review the state of media environment in the wake of the beating up of "The Nation"journalist, Daniel Nyirenda, and other journalists who were harassed during the UDF mini-convention

In what could pass as a face-saving move, President Bakili Muluzi has condemned as "unfortunate" the beating of Daniel Nyirenda, a photojournalist with "The Nation" newspaper, by youths belonging to Muluzi's ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) party.

Malawi's presidential and parliamentary general elections in 2004 promise to be ugly and brutal. Last week in Blantyre, the militant “Young Democrats” - a wing of the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) - brutally beat up a local newspaper journalist and robbed him of his two cameras and a cellular phone.

With 10 months to go until elections, the author of this article says it is time to ask some important questions: Has Malawi really enjoyed progress as a democracy or have we stalled between real democracy and the freedoms that come from that, or authoritarianism with its limited political freedoms.? Has our politics become dysfunctional and irrelevant? Has our political polarised position encouraged a breeding ground for extremists and sycophants who are keen on creating violent conflict?

Editors from private media houses have met to discuss political violence against journalists. The meeting held under the auspices of the media watchdog the National Media Institute of Southern Africa was convened to review the state of the media environment in the wake of the beating up of "The Nation" journalist, Daniel Nyirenda.

A petition from the NGO Gender Co-ordination Network to State President Bakili Muluzi calls for greater women's participation in political and decision-making structures. By signing the petition, you will participate in a chance-of-a-lifetime opportunity to actively support in the SADC Declaration on Gender and Development.

A Kenyan mother of five appealed to American President George Bush on the eve of his African tour on Monday for help in finding her husband, two weeks after his arrest in Malawi by United States agents on an anti-terrorist swoop.

Faced with a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS infection, environmental degradation and sluggish economic growth, young women professionals in Malawi have put their heads together and intensified efforts to bring about a major paradigm shift. The women, under a grouping called the Young Women Leaders Network (YWLN), want to put fellow women in the fore of developing this impoverished southern African state of 10 million people, of which women make up 50 percent.

Daniel Nyirenda, photojournalist of the daily newspaper "The Nation", was on Monday severely beaten-up by suspected members of the ruling United Democratic Front youth wing at a mini-convention the party held in Blantyre, Malawi.

President Bakili Muluzi has threatened to deal with media houses that probe the way he distributes maize to his supporters during political rallies. Muluzi was apparently incensed by a lead article in the "Weekend Nation" of June 21-22, 2003, that questioned the source of the alms the president doles out at his rallies.

Malawi's army has been deployed to quell violent riots after demonstrators attacked an American children's charity and several churches to protest the CIA-backed removal of five Muslim foreign nationals suspected of working for al-Qaeda.

Catherine Phiri, who has died around the age of 40, learned in 1990, after the death of her husband, that she was HIV positive. She could have done what everybody else did in Malawi at that time, and hidden the knowledge from her family, friends and colleagues. Instead, she defied stigma and discrimination and became one of the first people in her country to go public about her illness. Her death deprives the organisation she founded to help thousands of Aids orphans of a role model and visionary leader, but those who worked with her say there is no doubt that it will carry on her work.

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said last Wednesday there was a need for people involved with refugees and asylum seekers to be equipped with necessary skills that can help them spot terrorists wishing to enter Malawi under the guise of asylum seeking. Speaking in an interview in Mzuzu at a stakeholders meeting on the asylum seeking process in Malawi, UNHCR resident chief of mission Michael Owor said there was a need to train immigration officers, the police, religious and traditional leaders.

The reported secret transfer this week to US custody of five men arrested in Malawi on suspicion of being members of al-Qa'ida heightens concern about the United States of America's (US) attitude to the human rights of people detained in the so-called "war on terror", Amnesty International said. "Once again it seems that the US may have been involved in a transfer which circumvents basic human rights protections and national law," the organisation emphasized.