Posts in category: Uncategorized

…says the Human Rights Commission is refusing to condemn human rights violations because it has converted itself into a praise singer.

By NATION REPORTER

THE Human Rights Commission (HRC) should be disbanded for refusing to condemn blatant human rights abuses and violations thereby abrogating its constitutional mandate of monitoring and raising concerns whenever there are reports of human rights violations, Brebner Changala has said.

By NATION REPORTER

INSPECTOR General of Police Graphel Musamba has been condemned for decreeing the unconventional minimum force against opposition political party leaders if they will resist being cowed into submission by toning down in criticizing the UPND government.

Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia and University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, Pennsylvania, have looked into the efficacy of short-course vs. standard-course therapy for children with urinary tract infections.

KOSÉ Corporation has developed, in collaborative research with Professor Kenji Izumi and his colleagues at Niigata University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences (Faculty of Dentistry), a three-dimensional epithelial model that reproduces the human lip area from the oral mucosa to the lips and surrounding skin, using cell culture. The results of this research have been published online in the journal Histochemistry and Cell Biology.

In the first global assessment of tuberculosis (TB) among incarcerated people, a new study found consistently high TB case rates and low case detection in prisons, suggesting the need for health organizations to increase efforts to reduce the spread of TB among this high-risk population.

Autism research led by the Institut Pasteur, France, has found socioeconomic and cognitive correlations between rare loss-of-function variants in autism-associated genes and people without autism.

…as IMF executive board to meet to complete the first review of its US$1.3 billion extended fund facility (EFF) program for Zambia.

ZAMBIA’s debts to the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China and Bank of China will be treated as commercial in debt talks, a senior Finance and National Planning Ministry official said yesterday, after a deal was struck with bilateral creditors including China last week.

eTRANSAFE, the European project to share data on the safety of medicines, has come to fruition. On a single platform, the project has integrated data from more than 10,000 pharmacological studies by reference pharmaceutical companies, from a dozen databases that amass public and private information of clinical and preclinical studies. The project has also developed “Flame,” an open-source machine learning application that allows predicting whether future drugs will have adverse effects.

By NATION REPORTER

THE Law Association of Zambia (LAZ) has chastised Inspector General of Police Graphael Musamba for threatening opposition political party leaders with the unconventional minimum force during arrests if they will not tone down in criticizing the new dawn administration or cooperate with the Zambia Police.  

By BUUMBA CHIMBULU

THE annual inflation rate for the month of June has reduced to 9.8 percent following the drop in prices of selected food items

This is a reduction from 9.9 percent recorded in the month of May.

The development means that on average prices of food items increased by 11.2 percent between June 2022 and June 2023, says Zambia Statistics Agency (ZamStats) Statistician General Mulenga Musepa.

“This outturn is mainly attributed to price movements in cereals [maize grain, samp, cassava meal], meat [brisket, mixed cut, bone, beef sausage] and milk [fresh milk super milk, condensed milk, powdered milk, cheese].

“Other food items are vegetables [rape, cassava leaves, tomatoes, green beans, eggplant, green pepper and pumpkin] cooking oil and live chicken,” Mr Musepa told the media in Lusaka yesterday.

He said the slowdown in inflation meant that on average, prices of goods and services increased by 9.8 percent between June 2022 and June 2023.

He attributed the development mainly to price movements of selected food items.

Meanwhile, Mr Musepa said Zambia recorded a trade surplus of K40.8 million in May compared to a deficit of K457.7 million in April.

He said exports mainly comprising domestically produced goods, increased by 13.1 percent to K17, 121.2 million in May 2023 from K15, 136.1 million in April 2023.

 This was mainly on account of 16 and 14.2 percent increases in export earnings from Intermediate goods and Capital goods, respectively.

Mr Musepa said imports also increased by 9.5 percent to K 17,080.4 million in May from K15, 593.7 million in April.

He said this was mainly a result of 2.9, 27.9, and 4.6 percent increases in import bills of Intermediate goods, Consumer goods, and Capital goods, respectively.

“Traditional Exports (TE’s) earnings increased by 9.6 percent to K11.0 billion in May 2023 from K10 billion in April 2023. In terms of share in total exports, TEs accounted for 64.1 percent during the month under review,” Mr Musepa said.