Latest Mozambique Stories

MAPUTO (Reuters) - Mozambique expects to provide free anti-retroviral AIDS drugs to some 50,000 people by the end of 2006, more than twice as many as now get the life-prolonging treatment, the country's health minister said on Friday. AIDS is a major development challenge for the country where a million and a half people have HIV or AIDS. Mozambique has been hailed by international lenders as a model reformer that has grown its economy at an average rate of 7 percent to 8 percent over...

By Mateus ChaleMAPUTO -- The strongest earthquake to hit southern Africa in 100 years killed two people in northern Mozambique on Thursday and strong aftershocks sent frightened residents across the region into the streets.The magnitude 7.5 earthquake was felt as far south as Johannesburg and Durban in South Africa.Ian Saunders of South Africa's Council for Geosciences said the quake took place on East Africa's rift system."It was the largest earthquake to have occurred in the rift...

By Mateus Chale MAPUTO (Reuters) - A strong earthquake rocked northern Mozambique on Thursday, killing at least two people and sending frightened residents into the streets across southern Africa as aftershocks rolled through the region. The earthquake, which news reports said was the largest to hit the area in more than 100 years, was felt as far south as Johannesburg and Durban in South Africa. Mozambique's mines minister said one person was killed and at least 18 others injured when...

By Cris ChinakaHARARE (Reuters) - A strong earthquake rocked large parts of Mozambique and Zimbabwe on Thursday, sending people into the streets as far away as Harare and Maputo, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Web site said the quake, which struck just after midnight (2200 GMT on Wdnesday), measured an estimated 7.5 and was centered in northern Mozambique, an area not known for dangerous seismic activity.In Zimbabwe's capital, Harare,...

HARARE (Reuters) - A powerful earthquake measuring an estimated 7.5 shook large areas of Zimbabwe and northern Mozambique early on Thursday, shaking buildings from Harare to Maputo. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Web site said the quake, which struck just after midnight (2200 GMT on Wednesday), measured an estimated 7.5 and was centred in northern Mozambique, an area not known for severe earthquakes. In Zimbabwe, the quake jolted people out of their beds in Harare, where...

By Mateus Chale MAPUTO (Reuters) - U.S. Internet mogul Greg Carr has committed up to $40 million of his own cash to help rebuild a game park in Mozambique which he hopes to restock with animals from elsewhere in Africa. Carr, former chairman of Prodigy Internet and Boston Technology, told Reuters on Friday he wanted Gorongosa National Park in central Mozambique to recapture its place as a leading eco-tourism destination in southern Africa. The park, which lies at the southern end of...

By Ed StoddardJOHANNESBURG -- Attacks on humans by man-eating lions are on the rise in Tanzania and Mozambique, raising the stakes in the conservation game as environmentalists strive to save the big cats from extinction.Lions in the area have developed a taste for human flesh because people have been sleeping outdoors to protect their crops from raiding bushpigs, which the cats follow onto croplands, a leading expert said."In Tanzania in the early 1990s there were about 40 recorded lion...

By Mateus ChaleMAPUTO -- Pistols, rifles, machineguns and mines that spread terror across Mozambique during years of civil war have been transformed from agents of death and destruction into art, winning hearts at home and abroad.People have been encouraged to hand over weapons in exchange for sewing machines, agricultural tools, construction materials or bicycles. After the weapons had been put out of action, some of the pieces were used to make strikingly original sculptures."We...

By Mateus Chale MAPUTO (Reuters) - Only a tiny fraction of children in Mozambique eligible for AIDS drugs have access to the medicines due to a severe shortage of staff who themselves are dying of the disease, the country's health minister said. AIDS is a major development challenge for Mozambique, hailed by international lenders as a model reformer that has grown its economy at an average rate of 7 percent to 8 percent over the past decade and is seen as a strong campaigner against...

By Mateus ChaleMATUTUINE, Mozambique (Reuters) - Thirteen years ago, the small settlement of Matutuine in southern Mozambique was a desolate site -- uninhabited and ruined by war.The residents, some 50,000 people, had fled to neighboring South Africa or tiny Swaziland to escape mayhem and bloodshed in their own backyard during the civil war that had raged for 16 years before ending in 1992.Then, the ravages of war could be seen in the bombed buildings with their bullet-pocked walls. Of the 73...