SOUTH AFRICA, 16 Sep 2005 (THESTAR) - South African President Thabo Mbeki has blasted the failure of United Nations member countries to agree to a comprehensive package of reforms.

He dismissed their attempts as a "miserable performance".

They were full of half-hearted, timid and tepid responses to the need to close the economic gap and improve security between the richest and poorest nations.

"We have not made the decisive progress we thought we would with regard to the critical issue of the reform of the United Nations," Mbeki on Thursday told the special UN summit on reform.

ACCRA, 16 Sep 2005 (IRIN) - Sitting on a wooden bench in Ghana’s biggest hospital, 28-year-old Gifty Torto breastfeeds her tiny six-week-old son, hugging the newborn she is not allowed to take home.

The baby is being detained pending payment of her hospital bill, so Torto since her discharge three weeks ago has been visiting the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit at Accra’s Korle Bu teaching hospital twice a day to care for him.

The spacious hallway where the mother and baby sit, echoes to the cries of other newborns. Torto is one of 27 women whose infants are being detained in intensive care because of the mothers’ inability to pay the high cost of difficult deliveries by Caeserean section.

She owes the hospital close to 3,000,000 cedis (about $340). More than a third of the 74 women in the neo-natal ICU too are unable to pay.

LUSAKA, 16 Sep 2005 (IRIN) - Zambia is on track to meet many of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), but is still experiencing serious challenges in the areas of food security and health.

According to the 'Zambia MDG Status Report for 2005', it was unlikely that the country would attain three of the 10 MDGs by 2015 - halving the number of people suffering from hunger; reducing maternal mortality by three quarters; and integrating principles of sustainable development into its policies and programmes.

The report said Zambia would not reduce the number of people facing hunger by the required 50 percent because it still had structural problems in addressing food security, such as high poverty levels and poor agricultural productivity.

JOHANNESBURG, 16 Sep 2005 (IRIN) - Drought-stricken Malawi, which has suffered its worst harvest in a decade, is to receive a World Bank (WB) grant of US $30 million to support emergency recovery activities in that country.

WB approved the International Development Association (IDA) grant which will go towards the Malawi Emergency Recovery Project on Thursday to support government's efforts to feed its people and resuscitate agriculture production.

At least 4.2 million Malawians, or 34 percent of the population, are at risk of food shortages. Drought and late delivery of fertilisers and seed have caused the latest food crisis in Malawi.

The IDA grant will provide foreign exchange to support critical private sector imports for the restoration of investment and production of the economy, said a WB press release.

"The domestic financial resources generated by the grant will go towards financing the government's budget, including expanded safety nets and public works programmes to help poor people feed their families during the current crop cycle and provide seeds and fertilizer for the coming planting season," said the release.

JOHANNESBURG, 15 Sep 2005 (IRIN) - Opposition and civic groups in Zimbabwe have warned that the proposed exit visas for citizens would amount to the renewed repression of government opponents.

Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa told IRIN that a government team comprising officials from his ministry and the department of foreign affairs were working on draft regulations to make exit visas mandatory for Zimbabweans going abroad. He said the law would be taken to cabinet for assessment before being passed to parliament for debate and possible approval.

Although he denied that the proposed regulations were meant as a punitive measure aimed at opponents of the ruling party and government, Chinamasa admitted that some provisions of the recent constitutional amendments would be used to 'contain' political dissidents.