Only eight people turned up yesterday to commemorate the first anniversary of Robert Chasowa's death, a Malawian fourth-year engineering student killed under questionable circumstances in September last year.

A faction of the United Democratic Front (UDF) which intends to hold a national convention on 31 October says that it may seek funding from former president Bakili Muluzi if efforts to raise K35 million needed for the event fallsshort.

Presidential Press Secretary Steve Nhlane has said that K308 million (US$1 million) which Malawi President Joyce Banda and her entourage have blown on a three-week trip to the United Nations (UN) Headquarters in New York is "reasonable and far much smaller" than what late president Bingu wa Mutharika was spending on trips to the UN.

Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (Macra) has been stopped from going ahead with its K2.1 billion 'spy machine' project because it is "unreasonable, not necessary in an open and democratic society and not recognized by international human rights standards".

When , in late May 2012, Malawi's President Joyce Banda announced that she was going to discard the presidential jet and a fleet of 60 luxury Mercedes-Benz vehicles used by cabinet ministers, she became the darling of everyone as this move was said to signal a break from the lavish lifestyle of the past administration.

Condolences continued to pour on Saturday for Hastings Maloya—journalist, blogger, public relations practitioner, environmentalist and cultural conservationist—who succumbed to meningitis at Blantyre's Adventist Hospital Friday night. He was 40.

On the evening of 14 July 2010, Cephas Chimdima, a security guard in Lilongwe was mauled by dogs at the house he was working that left him disfigured for life. His case has been in court for the past two years. On Thursday, Judge Chifundo Kachale, sitting as Chief Resident Magistrate, ordered Dean van Schalwal, the owner of the dogs, to pay a fine of K1 million to court and K1.5 million to Chimdima as compensation. The Sunday Times visited the 74-year-old at Ohara village, in the area of Traditional Authority Chakhaza in Dowa. In this interview with MACDONALD THOM, Chimdima tells how his ordeal has strengthened his belief in God:

Malawi's vice president Khumbo Kachali has been roundly condemened for his vitriol-filed and angry reaction to calls for the president and vice president to ease up on domestic and international travel as one way of saving government money.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide, has made a fresh appeal for "urgent donations," to help feed 1.6 million hungry Malawians, saying it was faced with a funding gap of $30.8 million (K862 million).

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide, has made a fresh appeal for "urgent donations," to help feed 1.6 million hungry Malawians, saying it was faced with a funding gap of $30.8 million (K862 million).

A businessman based in Malawi's capital, Lilongwe, Ashraf Abdallah El Ali will forever rue the day he tried to smuggle US$184,800 (K55 200,000) past Kamuzu International Airport security.

Acting president of the former ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Peter Mutharika has said the turnout at his rallies across the country is a clear indication that the party commands support at grassroots level and will win big in 2014.

Despite being allocated a vast piece of land at Choma in Mzuzu, Malawi's second public university, Mzuzu University (Mzuni) has made little progress on plans to move to the new site.

Police have confirmed the death of Lasmas Bota, who was killed in Thyolo last Sunday after jumping from a moving train to follow his bags of charcoal that were being thrown down from the train.

Malawi's president Joyce Banda has said were it not for the vigilance of members of her personal security team, she could have been killed or maimed by elements in the Bingu wa Mutharika administration.

Students risk starving while on campus after Mzuzu University in the north of Malawi, announced that it would only provide meals for them up to Tuesday, August 21.

Both academic and non-academic staff at the institution downed tools seeking a 21 percent salary increment and of all the services offered on campus, only the clinic and the cafeteria had remained open.

However, a memo by the institution dated August 13, 2012, addressed to the Acting Vice Chancellor Orton Msiska, indicates that the two services will also shut down on August 21, a situation that would leave the students with no place to get meals from.

A number of students interviewed on campus indicated unwillingness to go back home saying they have already suffered a lot and going back home this time would not work to their advantage.

The university campus is already reeling from the effects of the strike with the toilets, among other facilities, now in an unusable state due to lack of cleaning and maintenance.

"Currently, the hardest hit of all sectors is the sanitation area. The toilets are not cleaned since cleaners are also on strike," said Mzuni students' representative council president Moses Chalera.

"We fear that if this situation continues, the students at the university will be at risk of getting contaminable diseases."

He revealed that there was hope of redeeming the situation as the university's management traveled to Lilongwe to liaise with the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) so that quick measures relating to the crisis can be found before the August 21 deadline.

Mzuni academic and non-academic members of staff have been on strike since August 7 demanding a 21 percent minimum salary increment government announced for civil servant in the 2012/13 budget.

Apparently, the institution's management is offering only 10 percent.

Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Regional Governor for the North Frank Mwenifumbo on Thursday said he has nothing to defend himself with for the mischief he caused while in his previous position, but asked Malawians to forgive him.

Malawian man, John Finias, 24, has been jailed to two and half years with hard labour for robbery and forcing two girls to strip naked in front of him.  A magistrate court in the southern region district of Thyolo heard that Finias, on May 24 this year, robbed the girls of a 1110 Nokia phone and K17,000 and forced them to strip naked in front of him, but did not touch them.

Malawi is being urged by its citizens to bank on history to cling to the giant Lake Malawi after its north east neighbour Tanzania revived claims to own part of it in a border dispute that dates 50 years ago.

Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete has categorically denied reports that his country is preparing to go to war with Malawi over the Lake Malawi boundary dispute.