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 […]

Duncan Mackay : Athletics When Tegla Loroupe returned to Kenya after winning the New York City Marathon in 1994, a party was organised and the villagers presented her parents with nine cattle, 16 sheep and some land. Yet it was the words of the women in her tribe she still values the most. “You did […]

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 […]

funds The new census figures prove that several provinces are not receiving a fair share of the national spending pie, writes Ann Eveleth South Africa’s poorest provinces may have to struggle with a “Cinderella” funding complex for the next five years, in spite of new census figures that prove they are underfunded. It will take […]

Maggie Davey Forty tons of apartheid government files are estimated to have been destroyed by the National Intelligence Service (NIS) in 1993, according to Professor Charles Villa- Vicencio, director of research at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Villa-Vicencio was speaking at a workshop organised by Wits Graduate School last week on future access to […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Nairobi | Friday 8.00pm. A FORMER senior official in the Kenya Wildlife Service was on Friday charged in the Nairobi High Court with the murder of British tourist Julie Ward 10 years ago. A lower court last month ruled that Simon ole Makallah had a case to answer and recommended that he be […]

For Olympic marathon-winner Josiah Thugwane, who will be competing in the prestigious New York Marathon next weekend, it’s been a long, hard road to success. Gavin Evans reports When Josiah Thugwane talks of his life’s greatest achievements, he glosses over his Olympic marathon gold medal and a string of other running records and settles on […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 7.20am. PROMISING South African tennis junior Dirk Stegmann advanced to the quarterfinals of the Central African tennis satellite after he beat Marcel du Coudray 4-6 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-5) in the Zambian capital Lusaka on Wednesday. The 15-year-old from Willowmore will now meet top-seed Justin Bower on Thursday. Bower can […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 11.50pm. SOUTH African tennis star Wayne Ferreira trounced world number three and US Open champion Pat Rafter in straight sets 6-4, 6-1 at the Lyon Grand Prix tennis tournament on Friday. Ferreira will play fourth seeded Spaniard Alex Corretja in the semifinals on Saturday. The South African has now won […]

Cameron Duodu : LETTER FROM THE NORTH Ever since I voted for Tony Blair’s Labour Party in the last general election in the United Kingdom, I have felt like a mug. I listen to Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown justifying the high interest rates by which my money is ruthlessly filched for a usurious […]