Johannesburg | Monday THE Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said the Commonwealth should urgently reconvene the special committee on Zimbabwe to discuss violations of the Abuja agreement and to insist that President Robert Mugabe sign the agreement, SABC radio news reported. In a letter to the secretary general of the Commonwealth, Don McKinnon, Leon said […]

AN off duty policeman was shot dead on Sunday afternoon in Osizweni in Newcastle in what appeared to be a road rage incident, KwaZulu-Natal police reported on Monday. Director Bala Naidoo said Inspector S.M. Mthembu was shot following an argument with another motorist about the way Mthembu was driving. Mthembu was shot in the chest […]

FRANCOIS-XAVIER HARISPE, Islamabad | Sunday THEY flooded in with hopes of scoops from Afghanistan, got stuck behind closed borders in Pakistan and their numbers have reached such a critical mass that the dateline joke is of “Journalistan.” Since the start of the current crisis surrounding Afghanistan, the Pakistan authorities have registered 450 newly arrived journalists […]

A NIGERIAN court has sentenced a policeman to death by hanging for the murder of a cab driver during a raid, a press report said on Friday. The Asaba high court in southern Nigeria on Thursday found 32-year-old sergeant Adegboye Ibikunle guilty of killing Godspower Edeha last year in a police raid on his house, […]

A DRUNK man who thought Good Samaritans were giving him a lift home on Wednesday night was instead beaten up, locked in the car boot and then dumped in the veld about 40km away. Three men offered a lift to Nehemia Silinda of Garelanani village in Bushbuckridge at about 9pm, after he had been drinking […]

A NEW defence bill before the Namibian parliament that aims to restrict media reporting on military activities is causing concern among journalists and human rights organisations. The draft legislation for the defence bill, which was introduced in the National Assembly on Tuesday by Defence Minister Erkki Nghimtina, deems it an offence to publish information which […]

A VENGEFUL Malawian woman has been found guilty of rubbing pepper into the private parts of her husband’s alleged 15-year-old girlfriend and repeatedly writing the word ‘prostitute’ over her body with nail polish. Constance Kamundi (26) was sentenced to two years of hard labour by a magistrate’s court in the lakeshore district of Mangochi on […]

SOUTH African President Thabo Mbeki and six senior ministers will travel to Japan on Sunday for a three-day state visit starting on Monday which will be aimed at boosting trade and bilateral ties. But no agreements are expected to be signed on Mbeki’s first visit as president to South Africa’s largest trading partner in Asia, […]

NIGER police have arrested two Muslim priests for sending a letter to the US embassy demanding that Washington change its foreign policy, a source said on Thursday. Sheikh Souleymane Imam Younouss (75) and 40-year-old Elhadj Boubacar Issa were arrested on Wednesday, the source said. Younouss is president of the Association for Islamic Culture and Education […]

FOLLOWING a 70% rise in deaths from malaria, the Namibian health ministry has asked parliament for an additional two million dollars to combat the disease. Petrina Usiku, the manager of the ministry’s malaria programme, said it would launch a three-month drive on Monday to spray DDT and other anti-malarial agents over almost half of the […]