Yearly Archives: 2001

THE Ghanaian government has announced its intention to almost double the price of petrol in stages, from Cedi 6 400 (91 US cents) to 12 000 ($1.71). The increase will be made periodically to make its effect bearable to Ghanaians, says Owusu Agyapong, Minister of Transport and Communications. The minister said the increase would not […]

BRIAN LIGOMEKA, Blantyre | Wednesday MILLIONAIRE Malawi politician James Makhumula has quit the ruling United Democratic Front (UDF) and launched a scathing attack on corrupt and inefficient former colleagues, including President Bakili Muluzi. The outspoken parliamentarian, who once served as the UDF’s treasurer general and helped fund its early election campaigns, accused President Muluzi of […]

EIGHTEEN more people have died in a meningitis epidemic in the north of Benin. Officials said the deaths, in the Atacora region 570km northwest of the capital Cotonou, took the total number of known fatalities in the outbreak to 36. Officials in the west African state said medical teams had been dispatched to the affected […]

POLICE in Tanzania have arrested two people in connection with a laboratory allegedly producing mandrax and heroin in a beachside house on the outskirts of Dar es Salaam. The police found processed tablets, a weighing scale, 18 types of raw materials such as starch, galalin and lactone, packed in polythene bags and in large paper […]

A quasi-political organisation and public holidays set up under Ghana’s former president, Jerry Rawlings, have been banned for the military. Defence Minister Kwame Addo Kufuor said soldiers were now banned from participating in the Associations of Committees for the Defence of the Revolution (ACDR), which has branches in the private and public sector and, up […]

THE European Union (EU) has placed a three-month ban on all beef imports from Swaziland following the kingdom’s failure to contain an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. EU resident advisor Aloys Lorkeers said the ban would also allow European agricultural experts to monitor Swazi cattle herds for Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), popularly known as mad cow […]

ANGOLAN Defence Minister Kundi Payama is to reveal in parliament details of illegal arms sales to the country in 1993-1994 from French companies. French judges are currently investigating Brenco France, the arms trading company whose president Pierre Falcone is in prison on possible charges of having organised shipments of arms to Angola worth $500m with […]

OWN CORRESPONDENTS, Johannesburg | Wednesday THE leader of South Africa’s biggest trade union federation, Cosatu, says the South African government’s policy of “soft diplomacy” towards Zimbabwe has failed. “Just talking softly, saying please to President Robert Mugabe has not helped,” Cosatu (Congress of South African Trade Unions) secretary general Zwelinzima Vavi told the independent eTV […]

AT least 12 African heads of state are expected to attend next week’s summit on the Burundi peace process in Tanzania’s northern town of Arusha. The summit is expected to settle outstanding issues in efforts to bring peace to Burundi after more than seven years of war, including the leadership of a transitional government and […]

EGYPT is in the midst of a drive costing $2bn to revamp its old airports and build new ones as it anticipates millions more tourists in the next few years. When the current program is completed in about four years, Egypt will have a network of 26 modern airports, including seven new ones, with capacity […]