JEREMY LOVELL AND OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Friday SOUTH Africa will not be stampeded into selling off its state-owned firms, which together account for 14% of gross domestic product, and will try to get the best prices for telecommunications utility Telkom, power utility Eskom, transport utility Transnet and arms maker Denel while trying to […]

THOUSANDS of Kenyans have joined a service of prayer for a US missionary found murdered a month ago. Headed by Roman Catholic clergy and singing hymns, they walked in procession for 8km from Naivasha, 80km northwest of Nairobi, to the isolated spot where Father John Kaiser’s body was found. Several members of parliament were among […]

THE four accused in the Delmas incest case are to appear in court again today to face charges relating a 16-year relationship between a brother and sister. Robert Fedder, 40, and his 32-year old sister, Heibrecht Kamffer, were arrested in July for allegedly having had an incestuous relationship for the past 16 years. They have […]

THE RECENT grenade attack on the headquarters of Zimbabwe’s main opposition party was staged by an undercover police officer assigned to infiltrate the party, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has alleged.”The evidence in our possession clearly points to the involvement of people in the highest offices of government in a […]

MASSIVE irregularities in Ghana’s voter register have appeared 10 weeks before general elections in the country, says electoral commissioner Kwado Afari Gyan. The lists include 1,5m people more than are eligible to votein the elections, scheduled for December 7. The commissioner said that while a population census held in Ghana earlier this year put the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENTS, Pietermaritzburg | Sunday SOUTH African agriculture authorities have expressed fears that the current outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in KwaZulu Natal could be as disastrous as “mad cow” disease was for Britain a few years ago after 16 magisterial districts were declared as foot-and-mouth disease control areas. Authorities have asked for more police and […]

AFP, Harare | Friday FOUR white farmers have been arrested on charges of “inciting violence” for allegedly convincing their black labourers to evict squatters from several farms south of Harare, the government daily reported. “The police will not tolerate any unlawful actions or disruptions of public order, such as new farm occupations,” The Herald quoted […]

A NORTHERN Province man and his wife have appeared in court for allegedly raping a 14-year-old girl in an attempt to “teach her to be a woman”. The man, 43, and his 42-year-old wife, who is accused of holding the teenager down during the rape, were not asked to plead in the Ritavi Magistrate’s Court […]

AN Egyptian worker stabbed his employer to death, then ate his flesh and drank his blood in an old Cairo mosque after he was fired from his job renovating the holy site, police said. The 28-year-old worker was enraged at his 56-year-old employer for firing him after only a day’s work at Al-Kordi mosque and […]

HOWARD BARRELL, Johannesburg | Friday DEEP concern is spreading through the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and its parliamentary caucus over the corner into which President Thabo Mbeki has led the party and the government over HIV/Aids. Most ruling party MPs and senior ANC members approached this week privately said the HIV/Aids fiasco raised serious […]