Top news items in major Zambian media outlets

LUSAKA, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- The following are news highlights in Zambia's major media outlets on Thursday:

-- Zambia has been ranked fifth among attractive mining destinations in Africa by a Canadian think-tank due to the country's stable investment and political environment.

According to the latest rankings by Fraser Institute, which looks at the various aspects of economic freedom, Zambia ranked 5th behind Cote d'Ivoire, Botswana, Ghana, an the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (Zambia Daily Mail)

-- Two more foreign firms have successfully filed in their bids to become a fourth mobile telecommunications provider in Zambia next year. (Times of Zambia)

-- The Zambian government has expressed sadness over the decision by Irish Aid, Ireland's official overseas development program, to close its operations in the northern part of the country. (Daily Nation)

-- A trade union representing pubic workers in Zambia has called on President Edgar Lungu to have mercy and forgive all pubic workers who have been retired in national interest.

Civil Servants and Allied Workers Union of Zambia (CSAWUZ) president Davy Chiyobe said the Zambian leader should forgive the workers and reinstate them, adding that some public workers were dismissed in national interest for alleged involvement in partisan politics. (The Mast) Enditem