Zambia

Lawyers for Zambia's ex-president Rupiah Banda accused prosecutors Thursday of pursuing his son on politically motivated charges of corruption in the sale of the national telecom firm to Libya's LAP Green. Henry Banda is living in South Africa. After his father lost elections in September 2011 the elite Government Investigative Wing announced that he was wanted for questioning over the $257-million sale of fixed-line operator Zamtel to the Libyan firm.

All seven districts in Barotseland, the western region of Zambia, where a two day mass rally was convened Monday, have backed calls for the region to secede from the rest of Zambia, state radio reported Tuesday 27 March. The Barotse National Council which called for the meeting said Mongu,Sesheke,Kalabo, Senanga,Kaoma,Shangombo and Lukulu supported the secession of Barotseland.

The World Bank has said that it will soon hand over to the Zambian government details and names of senior government officials in the previous MMD government who received a bribe from Alstom Corporation of France. The World Bank slapped a hefty 9.5 million dollars fine on the Alstom Corporation, a major French engineering company and blacklisted two of its subsidiaries, Alstom Hydro France and Alstom Network Schweiz AG (Switzerland), after it admitted to bribing a Senior Zambian government of...read more

Michael Sata has threatened to dismiss all public service workers and replace them with staff from his own political party if they take threatened strike action. The staff have threatened to go on strike over prolonged negotiation over salaries and other conditions of service. During his election campaign Sata announced a 100 per cent salary increase for health sector workers, who have since expressed their concern that the promise would not be fulfilled.

Three Zambian students were severely beaten in Saint Petersburg Russia on the night of 18 March, leaving one of the students in a coma. Police are studying records of CCTV cameras to establish the circumstances of the incident which many believe was a racist attack. Racist assaults are frequently committed by skinhead gangs, which have grown in number in recent years in Russia and specifically Saint-Petersburg.

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