LESOTHO and South Africa created a joint 8_000-square-kilometre conservation area on Monday over mountains straddling the border. The Maluti-Drakensberg Transfrontier Conservation Area will incorporate Lesotho’s Sehlaba-Thebe (Plateau of the Shield) national park in the southeast of the small kingdom and several South African reserves in KwaZulu-Natal province. The area created will stretch from the Golden Gate National Park in South Africa’s Free State province south to Ongeluksnek, a distance of about 350km, along the length of the Drakensberg and Maluti mountain ranges. – AFP