Yearly Archives: 2001

SOUTH African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) chairman Barney Pityana has appealed to President Thabo Mbeki to intervene to save Marietta Bosch from being hanged in Botswana, The Sunday Independent newspaper reports. Bosch, on death row in Gaborone, is facing the gallows for murdering her best friend so that she could marry her husband. “In our […]

NIGERIAS highest court has approved a death sentence against a man for killing his pregnant wife on suspicion her unborn child was the result of an affair. The Supreme Court of Nigeria confirmed the death sentence passed by a high court in Ijebu Ode in Ogun State that Pius Nweke be hanged for killing his […]

SUSAN NJANJI, Harare | Tuesday ZIMBABWES government has stepped up its campaign to drive senior members of the country’s judiciary off the bench, accusing judges of bias in favour of whites and the opposition. The first casualty was chief justice of the Supreme Court Anthony Gubbay, who last week was asked to retire early. Two […]

A BANGLADESHI court has ordered the immediate release of a young Nigerian languishing in jail since 1992 after being sentenced to a two-month term. Despite the High Court order, Goddyu Ochendo’s release from Dhaka’s Central Jail could take a few more days while Nigerian diplomats prepare his travel document and ticket for a flight back […]

THE Internet and e-mail provider Africa Online – which serves Kenya, Zimbabwe and six other African countries – has bought the Egyptian ISP MenaNet Communications SAE for $8.7m, giving it a foothold in the Middle East and North Africa. Under the deal, MenaNet will become a fully-owned subsidiary of Africa Online, which will use its […]

KENYAS gross domestic product fell 0.3% in the 12 months to November, the first time the economy has shrunk since independence from Britain in 1963. In its latest monthly economic review, the Central Bank of Kenya said the economy was hit by prolonged drought and severe power rationing that forced businesses to use expensive generators. […]

HEAVY fighting has broken out between rival armed forces in a densely forested area of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, officials of the rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) said. They said RCD forces, backed by Rwanda, were fighting a force of about 5 000 ethnic Hutus, including renegade soldiers of the former Rwandan […]

ISRAELI bulldozers destroyed two Palestinian houses near the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom in the Gaza Strip, witnesses said. They said two Palestinian families were left homeless after their houses were flattened. One resident, Sobhiya Al-Amour, 50, said the family had not been given time to remove the furniture. Three other bulldozers razed olive groves […]

A 12-year-old South African boy who became an icon in Africa’s struggle against HIV/Aids was in a critical, but stable, condition in a Johannesburg hospital on Tuesday, his foster mother said. Nkosi Johnson, who has been praised by former South African President Nelson Mandela, was rushed to hospital after suffering seizures linked to the disease […]

SOUTH African police have arrested an SA Airways (SAA) crew member on a flight from Buenos Aires in possession of more than R4m worth of cocaine. Police said customs officials found false compartments in the suitcases of the 26-year-old crew member at Johannesburg International Airport. When they searched the man they also found sachets of […]