Top news items in major Zambian media outlets

The following are news highlights in Zambia's major media outlets on Wednesday.

-- Zambian President Edgar Lungu said his government was scaling up intervention measures aimed at eliminating malaria by 2021.

Lungu said massive interventions measures have managed to bring down incidences from 407 cases per 1,000 population in 2014 to 335 in 2015 while malaria deaths have also reduced by 50 percent. (Times of Zambia)

-- The Zambian government said it has drafted a bill that will govern the petroleum sub-sector following its decision to limit its participation in the procurement of fuel.

Minister of Energy David Mabumba said the new bill will allow for competition in the procurement of fuel by the private sector as well as ensure protection of both the government and the private sector. (Zambia Daily Mail)

-- The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has given Zambia and three other countries 7 million U.S. dollars support for climate change mitigation an adaptation.

Minister of Agriculture Dora Siliya said this was revealed following meeting she held with FAO officials in Italy and named the other countries to benefit from the support as Malawi and Vietnam. (Daily Nation)

-- Lawyers representing Zambia's leading opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema in a case in which he has been charged with treason say they will consider citing prison authorities for contempt for refusing to allow him access to medical attention.

Martha Mushipe, one of the lawyers said the denial of advanced medical attention to their client was contemptuous as it was against the court order which ruled that he be accorded medical attention. (The Mast) Endit