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 Explorer announced litigation it had instituted against Mercantile Bank Ltd has been withdrawn.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 […]

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 […]

AFP, Windhoek | Wednesday OFFICIALS from the world’s biggest diamond producing countries met in Windhoek to find ways of curbing the trade in conflict gems, but their two-day conference got off to a false start with Sierra Leone and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) failing to attend. The Namibian director of mines, Kennedy Hamutenya, played […]

ONE of three men sentenced to life imprisonment in June for the rape of two Belgian tourists has been refused leave to challenge his conviction and sentence by the Appeal Court in Bloemfontein. John Tee and two other men were found guilty by the Port Elizabeth High Court in June of raping two women to […]

MALAWI has set November 21 as the date for its first multiparty local elections, an electoral official indicated. “We are all ready now, and this is the final fixed date,” electoral commission spokesman Festus Lipenga said. Malawi became a democracy after former dictator Kamuzu Banda’s rule ended in 1994, but the southern African nation has […]