April, 2013

CAIRO – Seeking to promote modern education among Muslims and reduce stampede for university places, Malawi is planning to open the country’s first Islamic university for students interested in studying Islam.

“We all have the common purpose of seeing Malawi as a country develop and through the right leadership this is possible,” Sidik Mia, Minister of Transports and Public Works, told Nyasa Times on Monday, April 29.

“Leaders need our support.”

Meeting with Muslim leaders at Mangochi Boma Sub mosque, Mia announced plans to open an Islamic university to promote modern education among Muslims in Malawi.

The…

Doctors call them “the big three” – malaria, tuberculosis (TB) and HIV/AIDS – three infectious diseases that account for 10 percent of all deaths worldwide.

The UN-backed Global Fund estimates it needs $87bn to bring these killer diseases under control.

To discuss the challenges of drug-resistant diseases, how we can finance treatment, and the millennium development goals, this week Redi Tlhabi speaks to Dr Lucica Ditiu, the executive secretary of the Stop TB Partnership based at the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Geneva; and Dr Mphu Ramatlapeng, the executive vice president at the Clinton Health Access Initiative and Lesotho’s former health minister.

Tlhabi also speaks to music legend Yvonne Chaka Chaka, the…

This past week marked the final training sessions for a whole new group of Peace Corps volunteers coming to Malawi.  They will begin their two year stint working in either health or environment jobs.

Some of us were…

MALAWI will lobby for the removal of the illegal Western sanctions regime that is affecting ordinary people, the nation’s President Dr Joyce Banda has said. Officially opening the 54th edition of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair here

yesterday, Dr Banda said her country would “blow the trumpet”. “My visit to Zimbabwe has provided me with a rare opportunity to see what is emerging in Zimbabwe. “It gives hope to see that the destiny of Zimbabwe remains in the hands of Zimbabweans.

“We will march with you and the rest of us shall blow the trumpet: ‘lift sanctions, they are hurting…

Kenya Airways (KQ) has received approval from the government of Malawi that will see the airline operate between the capital Lilongwe and Lusaka in Zambia from June 3.

This is after it was given the Fifth Freedom Traffic Rights which allows an airline to carry revenue traffic between foreign countries as a part of services connecting the airline’s own country.

That means KQ will now have the unique role to pick up passengers in Lilongwe and drop them in Lusaka and vice versa.

Currently, Malawi has…

During South 2 North’s half-hour timeslot on Friday, 26 April 2013, malaria will claim the lives of more than a hundred people.

“This week we’re talking about malaria and TB, infectious diseases that cost so little to treat, yet kill thousands of people every day,” says Redi Tlhabi, who hosts the Al Jazeera English talk show from Johannesburg, South Africa.

To understand the crisis, Redi will be speaking to Yvonne Chaka Chaka, UNICEF’s Goodwill Ambassador against malaria and the ambassador for Roll-Back Malaria.

One of Africa’s most famous musical talents, Yvonne is the first African woman…

Construction of a multi-million dollar secondary school in Kasungu with funding from the Royal Jesuits of the Roman Catholic Church is progressing well, to the satisfaction of the church.

Loyola Jesuit Secondary School which will cost the Jesuits US$9 million is expected to enroll 500 students once completed in 2016.

The first phase of its construction is due to finish in 2014 and will be ready for its first intake of form 1 students.

Roman Catholic Church Jesuits Superior General Father Aldofo Nicholas expressed the sentiments…

President Robert Mugabe welcomed Malawian President Joyce Banda today in Zimbabwe whom he has invited the to officially open this year’s Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) in Bulawayo.

The trip is Banda’s first official visit to Zimbabwe since taking over power after the death last year of her predecessor Bingu wa Mutharika, who was a close ally to Mugabe.

The president wrote this message on her official facebook page:

This afternoon I have arrived in Harare…

My father once told me when I was a young girl that I was destined to do great things. His belief in my abilities and ambition is rooted deeply in the spirit of Malawians; resilient and determined for a better Malawi and a better Africa. Today we’re at a crossroads to test this spirit. For far too long, the scourge of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria has devastated families and communities and slowed the economic growth of Africa. However, significant scientific advances and years of intervention experience have given us the tools we need to defeat these diseases. I…

You Lazy (Intellectual) African Scum!

by Field Ruwe

“It’s amazing how you all sit there and watch yourselves die,” the man next to me said. “Get up and do something about it.”

Brawny, fully bald-headed, with intense, steely eyes, he was as cold as they come. When I first discovered I was going to spend my New Year’s Eve next to him on a non-stop JetBlue flight from Los Angeles to Boston I was angst-ridden. I associate marble-shaven Caucasians with iconoclastic skin-heads, most of who are racist.

“My name is Walter,” he extended his hand as soon as I settled in my seat.

I…