14 year-old girl has been forced into marriage.
1/09/10
A 14 year-old girl has been forced into marriage, after her father received the bride price from the man who works in Illovo as a cane cutter in Chikhwawa.
This has been revealed during a meeting which was organized by Centre for Children’s Affairs Malawi together with Adolescent for Girls Literacy Project-AGLIT who are implementing a complementary basic education project in the area.
It is said that the girl is depressed that she is being forced by her father to accept the marriage that has been arranged by him.
The girl said a man only identified as Kondwani, expressed his interest to marry her through his mother.
Fearing for her life, a 14 year-old girl who is currently in standard five, accepted to take what she called Luphatho that included MK500 and a Chitenje as a sign of acceptance to marry the man.
This comes on the sidelines that recently, the legislatures passed the bill of child care and protection that aims at protecting the rights of children in all forms of exploitation.
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Mzimba Reverend Moses Chimphepo has asked sectors in the district to train at least one HIV counselor.
1/09/10
District Commissioner for Mzimba Reverend Moses Chimphepo has asked sectors in the district to train at least one HIV counselor in a bid to step up interventions in the control of further spread of HIV and AIDS and mitigation of its impact at the work place.
Chimphepo was speaking Wednesday during a District Executive Committee- DEC briefing on the guidelines on the utilization of the 2% of Other Recurrent Transactions- ORT budget commitment towards HIV and AIDS at work place programme.
The briefing meeting was organized by the Department of Nutrition and HIV and AIDS in the Office of the President and Cabinet- OPC.
Chimphepo observed that HIV and AIDS has heavily impacted the human capital in both the public and private sectors as evidenced by reduced productivity due to increased absenteeism and deaths of well trained and qualified people because of prolonged illnesses.
Also speaking on the same, Chief Nutrition Program Officer in the Department of Nutrition and HIV and AIDS in the Office of the President and Cabinet, Kondwani Mpeniuwawa said government recognizes the importance of a healthy work force that will effectively contribute towards the country’s economic agenda.
Mpeniuwawa said it is against this background that government issued a directive that 2% of the sectors ORT should be committed towards HIV and AIDS activities in a bid to curb the pandemic’s spread and impact.
He therefore challenged the sector heads to stick to the directive now that the guidelines had been made available to them.
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Scottish first minister has called on the UK and US governments.
1/09/10
The Scottish first minister has called on the UK and US governments to publish all of their documents relating to the release of the Lockerbie bomber.
The Sunday Times claimed to have seen a letter from the US administration to the Scottish government before the release of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi.
It said the US government did not want Megrahi released from prison.
But it said a compassionate release would preferable to transferring Megrahi to a jail in Libya.
Alex Salmond said the documents would vindicate the Scottish government.
Megrahi was jailed after being convicted by a Scottish court of murdering 270 people by blowing up Pan Am flight 103 over the town of Lockerbie, in south west Scotland, in 1988.
The majority of those who died were US citizens.
He was released in August last year after doctors said he was dying of prostate cancer and had three months to live.
Salmond did not explicitly confirm the existence of the letter referred to in the Sunday Times.
