ARMY units have arrested over 103 illegal Mozambican immigrants hundreds of kilometres from the border near the small farming towns of Piet Retief and Delmas in Mpumalanga over the past week. South African National Defence Force spokesperson Lize Pienaar said on Wednesday that the arrests formed part of a concerted anti-crime campaign in the region […]

A BOMB threat by an anonymous caller on Monday disrupted work at the Liberia Telecommunications Corporation in Monrovia, the country’s only communications link to the outside world. The caller said the bomb would go off at 14.00 GMT inside the building, but nothing had happened. The caller first phoned the corporation’s managing director, Charles Roberts, […]

TWO health workers were beaten to death by a crowd in Mozambique’s northern province of Cabo Delgado for allegedly contaminating their wells with cholera bacteria, Radio Mozambique reported on Tuesday. The radio said the incident occurred in the district of Montepuez, one of several areas in the province stricken by cholera, where the health workers […]

THOUSANDS of Democratic Republic of Congo soldiers have “invaded” the border town of Zemio in the Central African Republic, where they are robbing and raping residents, the town’s MP said on Wednesday. On January 8, several thousand soldiers from DRC “invaded (Zemio) … where they now behave as if they are on conquered territory,” said […]

THE sale of Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines’ (ZCCM) remaining mines is expected to effectively end a crisis period in the Zambian economy, Barclays Bank said on Tuesday. According to a bank newsletter, the sale of Nkana and Nchanga mines — previous to the sale they were a key obstacle to donor aid — has now […]

OVER 2200 workers will be retrenched in early February when another two Mozambican cashew processing plants close. This brings to 11 the number of plants forced to close over the past five years because of nut shortages and crumbling infrastructure. Only four sizable plants remain. Cashew Industry Association chairman Keko Patel said the closure of […]

TANZANIA’s foreign reserves reached $586-2-million at the end of last November, an equivalent of 23,4 weeks of the country’s import requirement, the central bank reported. In a monetary policy statement presented to parliament on Tuesday, the Bank of Tanzania said gross foreign reserves improved from $502,5-million, the equivalent of 16,7 weeks of imports, recorded in […]

ZIMBABWEAN attorney general said on Wednesday that he will order an investigation into the torture in detention of two journalists. Chinamasa said he will direct police to investigate accusations by Mark Chavunduka (34) editor of the independent Standard newspaper, and reporter Ray Choto (36) that they were tortured by the military after reporting on an […]

SWAZILAND’s national Olympic committee will decide on Wednesday whether to fire its president, David Sibandze, following his resignation from the International Olympic Committee on Sunday. Sibandze (66) resigned along with three other members at the weekend in the worst corruption scandal to rock the IOC in its 105-year history. IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch also […]

DRIEFONTEIN Consolidated gold mine reported on Wednesday that its profits are up 9% to R242-million in the quarter ending in December. However, headline earnings were down at 63 cents a share against 68 cents a share in the September quarter. An interim dividend of 75 cents a share was declared. Gold output rose 13% to […]