Top news items in major Zambian media outlets

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

-- Zambian President Edgar Lungu said the commissioning of various manufacturing projects in the country was a clear testimony of the economic recovery program that has continued to shame doomsayers and misleading investors who claimed the country was unstable.

Lungu, in remarks delivered when he commissioned a 12 million U.S. dollars pharmaceutical plant in Lusaka, the country's capital, said developments taking shape were a testimony that Zambia's economy was back on track. (Zambia Daily Mail)

-- Prison authorities in Zambia say the country currently has 170 inmates on death row.

Zambia Correctional Services Commissioner-General Percy Chato said the number has accumulated since July 16, 2015 when President Edgar Lungu commuted death sentences of 332 inmates, which resulted in the country having no inmates on death row. (Times of Zambia)

-- Zambia is stuck with over 52 tonnes of both legal and illegal ivory worth over 100 million U.S. dollars because of the worldwide ban on the trade in ivory.

Minister of Tourism and Arts Charles Banda said Zambia had plenty of ivory in stock which government was still deciding on how to dispose of, with 27.2 tonnes of the ivory being legal while 26 tonnes was confiscated from poachers. (Daily Nation)

-- An opposition political party has mobilized world solidarity towards Zambia's leading opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema who has been charged with treason freed.

Saviour Chishimba, leader of the United Progressive Party (UPP), said his party had been silently mobilizing world leaders by initiating a formidable and sustained advocacy campaign to release the leading opposition leader with the first meeting scheduled for the University of Bedfordshire in the Unite Kingdom on April 30 where an official campaign will be launched. (The Mast) Endit