Malawi: Anti-government clashes leave 18 dead

The death toll in clashes between police and demonstrators in nationwide protests against President Bingu wa Mutharika has climbed to 18, the Malawian health ministry said yesterday.

A spokesman confirmed ten deaths in the northern cities of Karonga and Mzuzu, where protesters angry at chronic fuel shortages and autocratic rule ransacked the offices of his Democratic Progressive Party.

Others died in the capital, Lilongwe, and the southern commercial hub of Blantyre after police and troops fired teargas to disperse crowds demanding Mr Mutharika leave office.

The bloody crackdown in the former British colony may intensify public anger against Mr Mutharika, a former World Bank economist first elected in 2004.

As riot police confronted groups of youths in the capital, he appealed for calm, saying he was happy to hear grievances.

"Stop the rioting and let's sit down to discuss," he said in an address on state radio, while warning that he had a responsibility to "bring law and order".