Zambia's human rights record has been slammed in a new report by a local human rights NGO, with the police coming in for particular criticism. Afronet executive director Ngande Mwanajiti told IRIN their newly released report, entitled 'Zambia Human Rights 2001', found abuses in freedom of association, freedom of expression and misconduct over the organisation of last year's election.

An ambitious project is underway in Zambia to integrate refugees into their host community while helping the local region to develop, UNHCR said in a statement on Wednesday.

In the last five years, the term globalization has been debated at almost every world forum and is said to be the best way to address extreme poverty in developing countries like Zambia. The international community led by the United Nations has been working with other donors to try and meet the so called development targets which is a vision and strategy to reduce the current world's poverty levels by 50% by the year 2015.That is reducing the number of people living in poverty in Zambia from the current 8 million to about 4 million before 2015.

The World Bank has pledged US $42 million to help Zambia's anti-AIDS campaign, but disbursement of the funds will hinge on the response of an unpredictable parliament to a proposed new national HIV/AIDS policy.

Adultery, especially when committed by an 'older' woman cannot be condoned, said presiding Lusaka Boma local court justice Sainet Chitambo as he dismissed a 31-year-old woman's claim for compensation for prostitution remarks.

Twenty-six Members of Parliament (MPs) who have not yet declared their interests, assets and liabilities now risk being prosecuted under the Parliamentary and Ministerial Code of Conduct Act.

Zambians have a right to know how Zambia National Oil Company (ZNOC) "lost" US $100 million, Lusaka Central FDD member of parliament Dipak Patel has said. Patel said it was inherently wrong for the government not to cause an inquiry as to why and how ZNOC "lost" approximately $100 million. "By simply appointing a liquidator the government is attempting to cover up mismanagement and corruption that took place at ZNOC," Patel said.

Arrest Chiluba, National Citizens' Coalition (NCC) president Pastor Nevers Mumba has demanded. Briefing the press in Lusaka, Pastor Mumba asked President Levy Mwanawasa to immediately arrest former president Frederick Chiluba to prove that he is committed to the fight against corruption.

President Levy Mwanawasa is corrupt, Patriotic Front president Michael Sata has charged.

A one-day summit held in Lusaka, Zambia, on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) peace process ended on Wednesday evening with no new commitments made by the participating regional leaders.

Zambian police recently arrested 39 people protesting against the rape and strangling to death of four young girls in the last one year. The 39 men and women, who are members of the Non-Governmental Organisations' Coordinating Committee (NGOCC), were charged with unlawful assembly and later appeared in court.

Zambia will win the war against corruption, Chongwe Zambia Republican Party (ZRP) member of parliament Sylvia Masebo has declared.

Zambia Plc Ltd, of which every Zambian young and old is a shareholder, is now one of the poorest countries in the world. One does not need to be a Harvard University graduate or Oxford economist to be able to analyze the current socio-economic mess now prevailing in Zambia.” Poverty in Zambia” is acute” and can be felt and smelt everywhere.

THE political climate in Zambia appears to be more dramatic considering the stand our President has taken to declare "war against corruption." This is a very courageous move taken by President Mwanawasa though it is a long process. His declaration marks the beginning of what we can call "The Mother of all battles."

A food shortage has forced a United Nations agency to slash aid rations to the bare minimum for 50,000 Congolese refugees in Zambia, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Saturday.

President Mwanawasa has challenged Parliament to become more open to members of the public. Speaking in his inaugural speech to Parliament in Lusaka, Mr Mwanawasa said that the National Assembly should open up to the people to facilitate the exchange of ideas with them.

The World Bank has drawn up a tentative plan to rescue Zambia's troubled economy as the country's strategic copper mining industry totters towards what analysts fear could be inexorable collapse.

She is sitting on a warped stool in a roofless market with the ferocious midday sun bearing down on her. A sinewy woman with deep-set eyes and sharp features that jut sphinxlike from under her black head scarf, Rose Shanzi awoke with a start this morning, and the primordial question that jarred her from sleep is stalking her again: Will she and her children eat today?