Malawi's President Bingu wa Mutharika died early Friday, hours after the 78-year-old suffered a heart attack, a hospital source said of the southern African nation's leader for the past eight years.

"He died... after two hours of resuscitation", shortly after midnight, the hospital source in the capital Lilongwe said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the government has not yet made a formal announcement.

Malawi's cabinet will decide if Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir can attend the AU summit in July, despite the war crimes warrant against him, the foreign minister told a weekly Saturday.

"This is a big decision and the whole government machinery needs to sit down to decide whether to allow, deny entry or arrest al-Bashir if he comes again," Foreign Minister Peter Mutharika told the Nation newspaper.

Madonna announced she has teamed up with an American charity to build schools in Malawi, reviving a project she had earlier dropped due to financial mismanagement and lawsuits.

"This remains a very big priority in my life and I am excited that with the help of buildOn we can maintain our ongoing commitment to move forward efficiently," the US singer's organization Raising Malawi said in a statement issued Monday.

The search for the world's first malaria vaccine received a boost with the release of early results from a major clinical trial showing it cut risk by about half in African children.

The vaccine known as RTS,S is made by the British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline's lab in Belgium, and is the first of its kind to attempt to block a parasite, rather than bacteria or viruses.

European Union foreign policy Chief Catherine Ashton urged Malawi on Friday to arrest visiting Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted for war crimes.

Ashton "is concerned by the announced visit of President of Sudan Omar al-Bashir to Malawi," her press office said, noting that Malawi is a state party to the Rome Statute that established the International Criminal Court.

The abandoned site looks more like a quarried mine than a pop superstar's multi-million-dollar dream to groom girls into Malawi's next leaders and doctors.

But the bleak, levelled terraces of gravelly sand near Malawi's capital are the only evidence of Madonna's $15 million (10.6 million euros) academy that was ditched in a cloud over misused funds and disgruntled locals.

Malawi has declared Britain's top diplomat to the southern African nation persona non grata after his criticism of the president was leaked to the press, diplomats said Wednesday.

"I am sorry to pass on the news that the Malawi Government has officially informed the Foreign and Commonwealth Office today (Tuesday) that Fergus (Cochrane-Dyet) is being declared persona non grata," British high commission vice-consul Lindsay McConaghy wrote in a memo, a copy of which was seen by Agence France Presse.

Malawian lawmakers will next week debate a law change to criminalize public farting, which a cabinet minister said had been encouraged by democracy.

"The government has a right to ensure public decency. We are entitled to introduce order in the country," justice and constitutional affairs minister George Chaponda told independent radio station Capital Radio.