FUGITIVE German billionaire Jurgen Harksen has finally won a legal battle to avoid being extradited to his home country to face more than 300 charges of fraud and tax evasion. The Cape High Court ruled that there was insufficient evidence to extradite him to Germany, Harksen’s lawyer Paul Katzeff said. “In seven years I have […]

PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki has lost a considerable quantity of his 20-year-old KWV brandy after a 27-year-old man apparently broke into Genadendal, Mbeki’s Cape residence, and tucked into alcohol and food. Police said that it appeared that the thief, who has been taken into custody, broke into Genadendal between 1 and 4 September. Mbeki, who is […]

11 000 awaiting-trial prisoners charged with petty crimes and who cannot afford bail will be released from South Africa’s overcrowded prisons, the Correctional Services Department has announced. An official said the move was aimed at alleviating the cramped conditions in the country’s 236 prisons which hold 172 000 convicted felons, and 65 000 people awaiting […]

THIRTY-seven people were feared dead after their boat capsized on Lake Albert in northwest Uganda. Police spokesman John Kimera said the boat, carrying at least 50 passengers, capsized en route from the western Hoima district to Nebbi district in the northwest. ”37 are feared dead, 13 of the passengers were rescued and 15 bodies have […]

THE World Bank plans to set up an international advisory group to advise on poverty reduction programmes linked to a major oil project in Chad. A World Bank source in N’Djamena said the members would be independent people chosen by an internal World Bank monitoring committee and they would report directly to World Bank President […]

SEVERAL Congolese soldiers were killed and at least 16 injured during clashes between military police and government troops at a military camp in Kinshasa, a senior Congolese official said. General Francois Olenga, head of the combined Congolese armed forces, said regular army units stationed at Camp Tshatshi mistook military police for rebel infiltrators. Both sides […]

A BAN preventing Sudanese women from working in public places like petrol stations, hotels and restaurants – so they don’t come into direct contact with men – has evoked strong criticism from human rights and workers groups in Sudan. According to Khartoum Governor Mazjoub al-Khalifa, the decree is intended to uphold the status of women […]

FURNITURE group Ellerine Holdings said its proposed takeover by rival JD Group had now been terminated as the tie-up had been blocked by the country’s Competition Tribunal. ”The agreement between JD Group and Ellerines has terminated and the Ellerines disposal will not proceed,” Ellerine said. It said the group would continue to be listed as […]

TRADERS and riot police fought running battles in a suburb of the Kenyan capital Nairobi after the city’s biggest clothes market burned to the ground, witnesses said. Police fired teargas canisters into the angry crowd as traders attempted to march into the centre of Nairobi. The traders believed the fire was the result of arson […]

SHARES in IT group, Explorer Corporation, surged by more than 20% after the company issued a cautionary note saying it had resolved substantially a legal tussle with one of its bankers. Explorer announced litigation it had instituted against Mercantile Bank Ltd has been withdrawn. ”(The) subject of the litigation has been substantially resolved,” the company […]