Lusaka - Zambia's main opposition leader Michael Sata has strongly opposed a reported request by China to plant 2 million hectares of the jatropha plant in the southern African country for the production of biofuels.

During a discussion programme on local radio Thursday, Sata said such a move would disadvantage Zambians, who are scrambling for land to grow food.

Lusaka  - In a development attributed to improvements in prevention and treatment, Zambia's HIV prevalence rate has fallen by two percentage points over the past year, a study showed Thursday.

The proportion of the population infected with the deadly virus that causes AIDS fell from 16 per cent to 14 per cent, the latest Demographic Health Survey published by the central statistics office revealed.

Lusaka - Zambia's Supreme Court has rejected an application by opposition leader Michael Sata for a recount of votes from last year's October presidential by-election, which he lost, local radio reported Wednesday.

Sata, leader of the Patriotic Front, had sought a recount of the votes cast after narrowly losing to current president, Rupiah Banda, in the election for a successor to deceased leader Levy Mwanawasa.

Lusaka - A court in Zambia Tuesday sentenced former president Fredrick Chiluba's wife, Regina Chiluba, to three-and-a- half years in prison for receiving and obtaining stolen state property while Chiluba was leader.

The magistrates' court in Lusaka found her guilty on five of six counts of fraud relating to property and funds she received from Chiluba while he was president from 1991 to
2001, Emmanuel Mwamba, a spokesman for the ex-leader told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Chiluba, 75, who appeared as a witness in the case, had accompanied his wife to Lusaka prison after sentencing, Mwamba said.

Lusaka - The southern African country of Zambia is set to start updating its voter register after aborting the overdue task for lack of time and money before last year's presidential by-election.

Electoral commission head Florence Mumba was quoted by state media as saying Tuesday that the commission would begin a continuous registration process in all 150 constituencies in the copper-rich country in June.

Zambia's parliament last week approved spending of 5 billion kwacha (around 900,000 dollars) for the exercise, which is seen as key to building trust in the electoral process in a country, where the last two national elections have been marred by contestation.

Lusaka  - Zambia has selected a Singapore-based company, Nava Bharat (Singapore), from ten firms vying for a stake in the country's biggest coal mine, it was announced Wednesday.

The semi-state owned Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines-Investment Holdings (ZCCM-IH) - which owns the Maamba mine - said Nava Bharat, a wholly-owned subsidiary of India-based Nava Bharat Ventures, had been chosen from a total of ten local and foreign firms as its strategic equity and technical partner.

India's Vedanta Resources PLC and London-based energy company Aldwych International were among the unsuccessful bidders.

ZCCM-IH did not stipulate how big Nava Bharat's stake in the mine would be, nor put a value on it.