OWN CORRESPONDENT, Freetown | Monday 11.30pm. A MILITARY court in Sierra leone has condemned 34 officers to death by firing squad for crimes linked to the coup that toppled the elected government last year. The 34 were found guilty of treason, murder and other crimes committed by the junta, which held power for 10 months […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday 9.30pm. THE Cape Town businessman Vito Palazzolo has been named by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation as being a senior member of the Sicilian mafia group Cosa Nostra. Palazzolo entered South Africa illegally in the 1980s and was given South African citizenship in 1995 in spite of appearing […]

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE, Dar es Salaam | Monday 11.30pm. A TOTAL of 10,367 refugees from fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo have arrived in western Tanzania since the start of fighting there two months ago, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said on Monday. A group of 147 were registered in Kigoma on […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, N’djamena | Sunday 9.00pm. The Sudanese government has meanwhile announced that it wants a ceasefire with southern rebels. However it stopped short of agreeing to a truce declared by the rebels a few days ago. The SPLA said on Thursday that it will extend by another three months a cease-fire set to end […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT Kisangani | Sunday 9.00pm. THE wreck of an airliner shot down at the weekend by Democratic Republic of Congo rebels has been found about 40km west of the eastern city of Kindu, a Congo Airlines official said on Sunday. “Villagers who found the wreck in the forest found no trace of survivors,” the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maseru | Sunday 9.00pm. A MAN was beaten to death and four more seriously injured by an enraged crowd at a Lesotho Congress for Democracy rally on Sunday. The rally in Maseru, attended by around 5000 people, had already been scattered by an earlier shooting in which one person was injured. Several people […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kampala | Friday 7.00pm. THE Commonwealth has announced the lifting of santions against Nigeria and a partial return to the fold of the organisation’s most populous member-state. At the end of their two-day conference at the Commonwealth secretariat, members of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (Cmag) said they had reached their decision “in […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kampala | Sunday 9.00pm. THE Ugandan government has confirmed that Ugandan troops now control several airstrips in the easter Democratic Republic of Congo. Regional Cooperation Minister Amama Mbabazi said on Sunday that Uganda was holding the airstrips to prevent Sudan from using them to deliver supplies to Ugandan rebels. “The best achievement has […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Midrand | Sunday 9.00pm. A PRESIDENTIAL summit to discuss farm attacks has ended with all parties in agreement on a 10-point plan to tackle the problem, the Sunday Independent reports. Delegates adopted a resolution committing all parties — government, opposotion parties, labour unions and farmin organisations — to co-operation and mobilisation of their […]

Wally Mbhele `These are times that try man’s soul. The summer-time soldier and the sunshine patriot will shrink from the services of the nation. He or she who stands it now, deserves the honour of the nation.” These were introductory quotes from chief land claims commissioner Joe Seremane in a controversial address he made to […]