Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa and his Malawian counterpart launched a long-delayed joint rail project on Saturday that is expected to help boost trade in Southern Africa, state radio said. Mwanawasa said the venture will connect his landlocked nation to the coast of Mozambique through Malawi.
Côte d’Ivoire’s Justice Department is pursuing a new lead in the disappearance of a French-Canadian journalist, the state prosecutor said on Saturday. Guy-Andre Kieffer, who had dual French and Canadian citizenship, disappeared three years ago and is presumed dead.
A wave of attacks killed a civilian and wounded five others in the Somali capital on Saturday, witnesses said, as Islamists vowed to wage a stronger insurgency to drive Ethiopian forces out. Insurgents overnight fired grenades at the Hotel Lafweyn where Somali National Reconciliation Congress delegates are staying.
Six children from the same family were killed when a landmine left over from Mozambique’s civil war exploded in the Southern African country, the Interior Ministry said on Saturday. The children found the landmine while playing on Thursday in a field behind their home, the ministry said.
A drop in the monthly inflation rate may have been greeted with sighs of relief by the Zimbabwean government, but analysts and consumers have seen little evidence that the economy has turned a corner. While the annual rate hit a new high of 7 634,8%, month-on-month inflation in July was lower than the June rate.
In a dramatic finale at the Spar Women’s Hockey Interprovincial Tournament, Western Province (WP) retained their title when they defeated Southern Gauteng on sudden-death penalty strokes at the Hartleyvale Astro in Cape Town on Saturday. The finalists were locked at 2-2 in regulation time.
The simmering and sometimes acrimonious dispute between Premier Soccer League champions Mamelodi Sundowns and Jose Torrealba took a positive and dramatic turn on Saturday when Fifa declared the Venezuelan international striker a Sundowns player.
Defending as though their lives depended on it during the final 40 minutes, a 10-man Jomo Cosmos secured a valuable 1-1 Premier Soccer League draw against Kaizer Chiefs at King’s Park Rugby Stadium on Saturday through a combination of true grit and their opponents’ aimless attempts to use their numerical advantage.
Sameehg Doutie, the 18-year-old winger sensation, was the hero of Ajax Cape Town’s 1-0 victory over Black Leopards in the Castle Premiership game at Cape Town’s Athlone Stadium on Saturday evening. There was drama late in the second half when the referee red-carded an Ajax substitute striker and a Leopards defender.
In a Hollywood with a reputation for liking things safe and bankable, a bizarrely cast film about the life of one of the most controversial singers of all time, opening in just four cinemas in all of the United States, would seem unlikely to be at the centre of the biggest Oscar buzz of the year. Yet a new biopic about Bob Dylan is doing exactly that.