FOLLOWING a meeting with Ghana’s President Jerry Rawlings on Wednesday, United States President Bill Clinton restated his support for closer ties between the US and an emerging Africa. In a bid to foster that partnership, the White House unveiled plans for a US-Africa conference in the US next month that will bring together foreign affairs, […]

THE South African National Defence Force has launched a top-level investigation into allegations that its fighter planes and helicopters regularly violate Mozambican air space. SANDF army chief Siphiwe Nyanda said in Maputo on Wednesday that the inquiry has been launched at the request of his Mozambican counterparts. A Mozambican military spokesperson said earlier that SANDF […]

LIONS rugby coach Laurie Mains showed faith in the team which beat the Falcons in a Vodacom Cup match last Friday and made only one change to the line-up to face Griqualand West at Ellis Park on Friday afternoon. Jannie van der Walt, in the Cats Super 12 squad last month, returns to the side […]

ERITREAN troops shot down an Ethiopian helicopter gunship and destroyed 31 tanks on Wednesday, radio Eritrea announced just before 5pm.The Eritrean troops also captured three tanks on Wednesday, the radio said. Eritrea and Ethiopia resumed battle in earnest 10 days ago, in a six-month-old border dispute.

POLICE on Wednesday fired teargas to disperse rioting students at the University of Durban-Westville in KwaZulu-Natal. The police were called in when campus security staff found themselves unable to handle aggrieved former students demanding they be allowed to re-register for studies this year. The university said it will not re-admit students who have displayed a […]

AN AVERAGE of two people a day allegedly died at the hands of police in South Africa in the year leading up to last March, parliament heard on Thursday. The Independent Complaints Directorate said between April 1997 and March 1998 it received 739 complaints about deaths in police custody or as a result of police […]

A ZIMBABWEAN high court has ordered Defence Minister Moven Mahachi on Wednesday to appear on Friday to face charges of contempt of court after he ignored three court orders to release Standard editor, Mark Chavunduka, from detention. Chavunduka and a senior reporter, Ray Choto, are facing charges of contravening section 50 of the colonial Law […]

GHANA became the first country to qualify for the world football U-20 youth tournament on Wednesday when it trounced Angola 5-0 in the Africa U-20 youth football tournament in Accra. The result means Ghana, in group A, qualifies for the semi-finals with a maximum six points. Four teams from the tournament besides Nigeria, who are […]

THE Lesotho consultative forum convened by the country’s Interim Political Authority has agreed on the need to replace the tiny country’s “first-past-the-post” Westminster-style political system, and proportional representation is the likely alternative. A new electoral system will be chosen for “political stability, inclusiveness and manageability”. The IPA represents all political parties and was set up […]

THE Mozambican Justice Ministry has confirmed that at least 25 inmates of the main prison in the northern city of Nampula died last year because they were not provided with speedy medical care. Citing the assistant national director of prisons, Joao Ajuda, the Maputo-based Noticias newspaper said that after an enquiry the Nampula prison director, […]