OWN CORRESPONDENTS, Kinshasa and Lusaka | Sunday 10.30pm. AUTHORITIES in the Democratic Republic of Congo have confiscated the passport of opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, who was due to fly to Brussels at the weekend. DRC immigration officials gave no explanation for the confiscation. During his trip, Tshisekedi was to have addressed the European Parliament. Tshisekedi, […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Dar es Salaam | Sunday 9.30pm. BALLISTIC experts have impounded a device suspected to have been used in mixing chemicals which formed the bomb that destroyed the United States Embassy in Dar es Salaam on August 7, the Tanzanian Daily Mail has reported. It is not known, however, whether the device was one […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Mbabane | Sunday 7.30pm. SWAZILAND’S general election ended at 5:00pm on Saturday, after being suspended eight days ago when rain prevented many voters from casting their ballots. Votes cast during the quiet and generally slow day of voting will be counted with those from October 16. The results will be released “before the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Warri | Sunday 10.00pm. YOUTHS from the Ijaw community in the Niger Delta stepped up attacks on a rival group this weekend, raiding their ancestral home, kidnapping residents and seizing police weapons, witnesses said on Sunday. Ode-Itsekiri, the traditional birthplace of the Itsekiri people of the Niger Delta, was razed in a pre-dawn […]

Maureen Barnes : Down the tube Last week, in what was the most riveting programme to date, Special Assignment dealt with the extraordinary affair of Vito Palazzolo, the man who seems to have enjoyed special consideration not only from the Nats, but from the present establishment. The team did a neat investigation of the background […]

Anthony Orliange Manga and Sori are youngsters about to finish school. In the evening they meet, “to revise for exams”, as they tell their parents. Actually, they share amorous moments of tenderness in Sori’s car, or outside cafs. Tired of concealing their relationship, they try to come out. But under such dire circumstances they are […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT and AFP, Freetown | Friday 7.30pm. FODAY Sankoh, the rebel leader who waged war against four Sierra Leonean governments and described himself as a “man of peace”, was sentenced to death on treason and murder charges in Freetown High Court on Friday. The leader of the Revolutionary United Front launched his rebellion in […]

David Gleason : A SECOND LOOK Anglo American Corporation chair Julian Ogilvie-Thompson’s announcement last week that it is to become a United Kingdom registered company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange poses as many questions as it does answers. The decision to shift Anglo’s head office to Britain follows the path blazed […]

Poor West African fishermen, prevented by an international treaty from fishing off their own shores, are forced to buy their own sardines in European cans, reports Paul Brown Mauritanian fishermen sit in the harbour gazing out to sea. In the distance, where Africa bulges out into the Atlantic, they watch sunlight glinting off other men’s […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Bujumbura | Friday 9.00pm. BURUNDI’S government, opposition and rebels on Thursday wrapped up a third round of talks aimed at ending six years of civil war with an agreement to meet again in January, but with few concrete decisions. The next round is set for January 18 to continue a peace process begun […]