Malawi suspends parliament : govt, opposition meet

Malawi's parliament has been suspended while the government and opposition hold talks to avert a political crisis that threatens to derail international donor programmes, senior officials said today.

"Parliament has not met for three days now because of the talks and I have been asked to adjourn until next week," parliament spokesperson, Louis Chimango said.

President Bingu wa Mutharika invited the opposition leadership for talks this week to end an impasse over the right of parliamentarians to switch party allegiance -a sensitive issue which led to a 5 day opposition boycott of the assembly. –Reuters