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/ 11 November 2001

REPORTER FREED AFTER 5 MONTHS IN DRC JAIL

A Democratic Republic of Congo journalist arrested more than five months ago on defamation charges has been freed, non-governmental organisation Journalists in Danger (JED) said on Thursday. Freddy Loseke, editor of “Free Africa” publication, was freed on Tuesday after being arrested in April, JED said in a statement. He was charged following complaints by the […]

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/ 11 November 2001

12 TAKEN HOSTAGE IN CASAMANCE

A GROUP of some 50 armed separatist rebels on Wednesday attacked workers on a construction site in Casamance in Senegal, before fleeing with 12 hostages, military sources said. The attackers robbed workers of the Satom public works company while they were building a road link between the towns of Bignona and Dioulou, northwest of Casamance’s […]

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/ 11 November 2001

Baby rape jolts South Africans into action

CLAIRE KEETON, Johannesburg | Saturday THE gang-rape of a nine-month-old baby has finally jolted South Africans into acknowledging everyday sexual violence against children, and to demand why it is so widespread. One factor is a widespread myth that sex with a virgin will cure you of Aids: some 4,7-million South Africans, or one in nine, […]

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/ 11 November 2001

UGANDA TO HOOK ILLEGAL FISHERMEN

A CRACKDOWN on illegal fishing on the Ugandan side of Lakes Victoria and Albert will help boost exports and sustain the fishing industry, the minister for agriculture and fisheries said. Kisamba Mugerwa said up to 50 000 tons of fish were lost each year in illegal fishing, but that a crackdown by an anti-smuggling force […]

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/ 11 November 2001

ZIM SUPREME COURT JUDGE DUMPS CITIZENSHIP

A WHITE judge on Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court, Nicholas McNally, has given up his Zimbabwean citizenship and resumed his British one, a state newspaper said Thursday. “Justice McNally and his wife … recently surrendered their Zimbabwean passports to the registrar general’s office after securing British travel documents,” The Herald reported. McNally, who is due to retire […]

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/ 11 November 2001

SWAZILAND WOULD PREFER SUNSHINE JOURNALISM

THREE freelance journalists in Swaziland have been warned by the state police that they should stop writing negatively about the country and the King. The journalists are Lunga Masuku of African Eye News Service, Thulani Mthethwa who does some work for British Broadcasting Corporation and South African Press Association and Bheki Matsebula who writes for […]

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/ 11 November 2001

Arms deal report may blow up in govt’s face

PAUL KIRK, Durban | Friday THE long-awaited report on South Africa’s R60-billion arms package, due out next week, is expected to blast officials for conflicts of interest, recommend a shake-up of tender procedures and criticise several of the weapons deals. Compiled by the Scorpions, the public protector and the auditor general, the report will update […]

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/ 11 November 2001

Morkel jumps, says he wasn’t pushed

ANGELA QUINTAL, Cape Town | Sunday AFTER more than 10 years in the New National Party and three years as Western Cape Premier, Gerald Morkel, on Saturday jumped ship, but denied he was pushed. Morkel chose to do so in the NNP’s coloured heartland of Mitchell’s Plain, in front of a small, but vocal group […]

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/ 11 November 2001

30 FEARED DEAD AS BOAT SINKS ON LAKE VICTORIA

AT least 30 people are feared to have drowned after a boat they were travelling in on Lake Victoria capsized on Wednesday evening near Sengerema, a few kilometres from Tanzania’s port city of Mwanza, police said on Thursday. “We are still investigating the cause of the accident, but preliminary reports indicate that the boat capsized […]

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/ 11 November 2001

3 CHILDREN KILLED BY MORTAR SHELL IN ANGOLA

THREE children have been killed in southern Angola after playing with an unexploded mortar shell, a police representative told the Portuguese news agency Lusa on Wednesday. The three children were playing in the southern Angolan city of Lubango, the capital city of Huila province, with an 82-millimetre mortar shell they had found on wasteland in […]