BRITISH soldiers backing the government in conflict-ridden Sierra Leone handed out leaflets in Freetown on Wednesday warning they would soon leave. “As UNAMSIL reinforces and assumes the role of defending Lungi airport (near Freetown) there will be a withdrawal of British troops,” the leaflet said, without giving any dates. The British government has said on […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Tuesday 2.00pm. JEFFREY’S Bay will host the first R1-million surfing event in South Africa when the Billabong MSF Pro starts in the Eastern Cape town on June 29. The event, sanctioned by the Association of Surfing Professionals, forms part of the 13-event World Championship Tour that crowns the annual men’s […]

THE Tanzanian government has sold a 51% stake in its airport services company to Swissport, a subsidiary of Swissair, for $4,8-million dollars. The state privatization agency said Swissport signed the sale agreement on Tuesday with the Tanzanian government and former foreign shareholders of the Dar es Salaam Airport Handling Company.

AN electronics, electrical engineering and information technology export council has been set up to promote international sales of South African electrotechnical goods and services. Membership has so far been extended to 38 companies.

SOUTH Africa’s rugby talent is leaking through to Wellington, New Zealand with Stormers prop Morne van der Merwe staking a claim to play in the National Provincial Championships. Wellington already have eight props in their ranks, including England prop Kevin Yates, Hurricane Mike Edwards, Samoa test players Kepi Faivaii, Kas Lealamanua and Malaga Leota, ex-Chief […]

FORCES allied to Democratic Republic of Congo President Laurent Kabila said on Wednesday they repulsed an attack on their positions by the Uganda-backed rebels, killing 49 of them. Last week, the United Nations observer mission in the DRC accused the rebels of violating a ceasefire signed by the warring parties last year. The UN Security […]

SOKOTO state in northern Nigeria has introduced the Sharia, the Islamic legal code, becoming the second state in the country to introduce the controversial law. Unlike in Zamfara State, which blazed the trail in introducing Sharia with many fanfares earlier in the year, there was no ceremony to mark the one in the predominantly-Muslim Sokoto […]

OIL giant Royal Dutch Shell said on Wednesday it has agreed to sell its Australian-based coal business to Anglo American for between $850-million and $900-million in cash. The final price is dependent on balance sheet adjustments on completion of the deal, Shell said in a statement, adding that it expects to finalise the agreement by […]

A HIGHER-than-permitted amount of radioactive liquid material was pumped into a South African river last year, the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation has admitted. The liquid was released from the corporation’s Pelindaba facility, 30 kilometres west of the capital Pretoria, into the Crocodile River, the corporation said in a statement. The incident was the result […]

A CHEWABLE African shrub used by Somali gunmen fighting US troops in Mogadishu is posing concerns for US East Coast federal officials who believe it may offer the latest cheap amphetamine high. Khat — also known as “qat” — is traditionally used as a mild stimulant in African and some Middle Eastern countries. But US […]