AN ESTIMATED 128000 or 20% of some 640000 teenagers in Kenya’s secondary schools are infected with the HIV virus, Education Minister Kalonzo Musyoka said on Thursday. Most secondary school pupils in Kenya are aged between 14 and 17. President Daniel arap Moi last November declared Aids, which kills an estimated 500 Kenyans every day, a […]

EthnicTutsis in Burundi opposed to talks aimed at bringing an end to more than six years of civil war have called on newly appointed mediator Nelson Mandela to visit the country.

171 people arrested after a clash between rival tribes near Umtata in the Eastern Cape at the weekend appeared in court on Wednesday. The death toll in Sunday’s clashes, at the town of Flagstaff, rose to six on Wednesday after police discovered the body of a man who had been missing. The 171 people, who […]

AN oil spill is threatening the central African coast off the Angolan enclave of Cabinda, local government said on Wednesday. A large oil-slick has hit the Atlantic waters near the port of Futila, killing large quantities of fish, a local fisheries official said. The local administration said the spill resulted from operations by US oil […]

THE self-proclaimed Republic of Somaliland has given Ethiopia free access to a dock which will allow the land-locked country to receive critical food supplies, Ethiopian officials announced on Thursday. Deputy Transport and Communications Minister Ayenew Bitewlign confirmed that Ethiopia has been given formal permission to use the port of Berbera in the north-eastern rump of […]

EGYPTS’S oil reserves have more than doubled with a huge discovery during deep water drilling off its Mediterranean coast, Oil Minister Sameh Fahmi announced on Monday. The find, made by three international companies which he did not name, will increase the country’s oil reserves from 3,7-billion barrels to 8,2-billion. Gas deposits lying beneath the oil […]

MALAWI has awarded a historic 50% bonus to its 130000 poorly paid civil servants, a top government official said on Thursday. Alfred Upindi, secretary to the president and cabinet, said that President Bakili Muluzi has ordered the bonuses to be paid, for the first since colonial rule ended in 1964. He said the funds to […]

AT least three Xhosa circumcision initiates have died and a large number have been admitted to Eastern Cape hospitals recently following botched circumcision procedures. Doctors said traditional surgeons often use the same blade on a string of initiates. At least 42 patients were admitted to northern Eastern Cape hospitals since December for treatment for serious […]

GRAEME Pollock was named South Africa’s Cricketer of the Century in Cape Town on Sunday at a ceremony in which close contender Basil D’Oliveira walked onto the Newlands ground for the first time in his life. The 55-year-old Pollock, an elegant left-handed batsman whose Test average of 60.97 was second only to that of Australian […]

FLOODS have caused extensive damage to roads, animals and crops in several Northern Cape farming towns following heavy rainfall over the past 24 hours. In Postmasburge streets were flooded and bridges collapsed. In the farming community of Gatkoppies four houses were badly damaged, 10 goats were killed and 50 others washed away and vegetables worth […]