Always up for an opportunity to pose with crowds of poor African children, HRH Queen of Pop Madonna took another trip to Malawi last week to visit the handful of schools she's funding through her charity, Raising Malawi. Donning a fedora, she traipsed from village to village, dancing with locals and high-fiving people…

Ew, Jeremy Irons. Ew. Remember the other month when he waxed all creepy about how ladies should really just chill out and let men rub us on our bottoms whenever they feel like it? Well, now Monsieur Humbert is grappling with another social conundrum: Just what is up with gay guys!? Hold on to your butts (especially…

She's the latter, according to Malawi's Education Minister Eunice Kazembe. Kazembe says that Madonna claims she built ten schools for the children of Malawi, when the actual number of schools built by Madonna was zero schools. I don't completely understand why our gal Madge—who is clearly dedicated to philanthropy…

Bees — the Secret Service's firearms are useless against them, a fact that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton learned as she was preparing to depart Malawi on Sunday. Clinton breezed through a six-hour visit to Malawi that included a meeting with President Joyce Banda, as well as two visits to U.S.-endorsed projects…

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, left, meets with Malawi's President Joyce Banda at the State House in Lilongwe, Malawi, on Sunday, Aug. 5, 2012. This is the first visit to Malawi by any U.S. Secretary of State. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)

Joyce Banda, who was recently sworn in as Malawi's first-ever female president, has said that she plans to repeal her country's laws against homosexuality in her first state of the union address, a bold move, notes the Atlantic Wire's Connor Simpson, since homosexuality has been criminalized in 37 African countries…

Shortly after the confirmation of President Bingu wa Mutharika's death early on Saturday, Malawi's Vice President Joyce Banda was sworn in as the country's — and southern Africa's — first female head of state. Banda, who'd served as vice president since 2009, was cheered by crowds during and after her oath before…

[Lilongwe, Malawi; April 8. Image via Getty]

[Lilongwe, Malawi; April 5. Image via AP]

Following Malawi's first same-sex wedding on Saturday, the newlyweds were jailed for "gross indecency":

On Monday, Madonna broke ground on a new school project in Malawi; today, she takes to the Huffington Post to ask for donations. Her megawatt star power helped engage media attention - but are high profile celebrities actually hurting progress?

[Chinkhota, Malawi; October 26. Image via AP]

16-year-old Malawian Idah Savala attends school on an American scholarship and studied at Phillips Exeter this summer, but the difficulty of being accepted to Malawian universities and paying tuition may still derail her dream of becoming a doctor. [CS Monitor]