FORMER president Nelson Mandela launches his mediation bid in Burundi’s fragile peace process on Sunday when he meets rival Burundian leaders in Tanzania, officials said on Thursday. It will be Mandela’s first meeting with the leaders of Burundi’s government and opposition negotiating teams since he took over as mediator from Tanzania’s founding president Julius Nyerere, […]

A MEETING of African experts on firearms trafficking in Africa ended in Kampala, Uganda on Wednesday with a resolution to set up firearms control centre in the region. The proposed centre will also promote co-ordination of international efforts at regional level to combat the illicit manufacturing and trafficking in firearms. The experts’ group meeting, which […]

CELLULAR network provider Vodacom on Tuesday it will inject about R540-million into its newly established subsidiary Vodacom Tanzania, creating 200 direct jobs. This follows the Tanzania Communications Commission’s decision to issue a licence to operate a GSM cellular network, in December last year. Tanzanian shareholders own 49% of the new cellular network, while Vodacom has […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Tripoli | Thursday 3.15pm. THE Libyan Olympic Committee said Thursday it has taken all necessary steps to ensure the safety of participants in the Paris-Dakar rally after the Niger leg was cancelled due to terrorist threats. The statement was issued through Libya’s official JANA news agency after organisers of the rally began a […]

MORE than 7500 people have fled fighting in Angola and crossed the border into Zambia since January 1, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said on Tuesday. The refugees who arrived in Sijembela, just across the border from Angola, had come from the areas of Luiana and Jamba, UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski said, adding that they […]

THE opposition Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) party led by Laurent Gbagbo has finally agreed to join the transition government of General Robert Guei. Four ministers from the party took part in the council of ministers meeting held in Abidjan, the country’s commercial city on Wednesday. “We are now in the government,” said Leon Emmanuel Monet, […]

THE Paris to Dakar rally, suspended on Tuesday after terrorist threats, will restart on Monday, January 17. Wednesday’s seventh stage start from the Niger capital of Niamey was cancelled following a warning to race organisers from the French foreign ministry. Rally organisers the Thierry Sabine Organisation (TSO) were informed of the possibility of a security […]

“Something happened” in the tail of the EgyptAir Boeing 767 which crashed into the sea on October 31 shortly after take off from New York, killing all 217 people aboard, the chairman of EgyptAir announced on Monday. “The plane plummeted because of something that happened in its tail,” Mohammed Fahim Rayyan told journalists, but did […]

JONTY Rhodes on Thursday failed a fitness test and has lost his place in the South African side to face England in the fifth Test at Centurion Park on Friday. Rhodes will be replaced by Border’s Pieter Strydom, and Strydom’s inclusion is the the only change to the side which won the fourth Test, and […]

MOZAMBIQUE opposition leader Afonso Dhlakama is refusing to attend the investiture of his rival, incumbent President Joaquim Chissano. Opposition Renamo general secretary Joao Alexandre confirmed that Dhlakama will not be present when Chissano is to be sworn into office for a new five-year term or for the inaugural session of the newly-elected parliament. Renamo appealed […]