Ex-Foreign Minister charged with corruption

Zambia's former foreign minister Katele Kalumba and three ex-senior Treasury officials have been arrested and jointly charged with corruption involving US$ 20 million, a prosecutor has announced. Kalumba and the other three were the latest high profile figures to be arrested in a corruption drive launched by Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa which is the country's biggest crackdown since independence from Britain in 1964. Prosecutor Mutembo Nchito said Kalumba had been arrested alongside former senior Treasury figures Bede Mphande, Boniface Nonde and James Mtonga over contracts awarded to two U.S. firms, through which the government lost in excess of US$ 20 million.