Lusaka | Wednesday ZAMBIA police released an outspoken opposition politician and two journalists late on Tuesday after charging them with defaming President Frederick Chiluba, one of their defence lawyers said. The three surrendered themselves to the police on Tuesday morning after their arrest was ordered at the weekend following a newspaper article which claimed Chiluba […]

MAXIM KNIAZKOV, Washington | Wednesday THE US government came under fire on Tuesday over its stance during Rwanda’s 1994 mass killings following the release of declassified official documents showing Washington anticipated events now seen as among the most gruesome atrocities of the late 20th century. “The US response was literally running away from any responsibility,” […]

A JOINT team of experts from the Sudanese government, UN relief agencies and NGOs left on Tuesday for the central Sudan Sennar State, to assess the situation after days of heavy rains and storms. High waters of the Blue Nile have already inundated a number of villages in Sennar State, where 500 homes and numerous […]

EVARISTO CUMBANE, Maputo | Wednesday SENA Sugar Estates — abandoned by its owners, bombed by rebels, and threatened by raging floodwaters — is about to complete its transformation from ruin to a potent symbol of Mozambique’s post-war recovery. The sugar mill in the central town of Marromeu, flanked by the mighty Zambezi River and surrounded […]

THE Nigerian navy has rescued a ship stranded at sea with around 200 passengers aboard which was running out of food and water. The Nigerian-owned MV Mulolinja was rescued on Saturday in difficulties off the coast of Brass, a town in southern Bayelsa State, the newspaper The Punch reported. The ship has been re-supplied with […]

NIGERIAN President Olusegun Obasanjo on Tuesday set a target date of 2005 for four US oil companies to start operation of a second liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Abuja. The four companies, ExxonMobil, Texaco Overseas Petroleum Company Unlimited, Chevron and Conoco Energy, undertook a feasibility study for the project earlier this year. In a […]

THERE were toothy grins all round on Tuesday when Northern Province health MEC Sello Moloto handed over 12 mobile dental clinics worth R10-million as part of national oral health month. Two clinics will be stationed in each health district in the province as of the end of August to take basic dental care to thousands […]

THE highest authority in Islam, the Cairo-based Al-Azhar, gave the final go-ahead on Tuesday to an unprecedented film on the life of the Islamic prophet Mohammad. The film, “Mohammad, the Last Prophet,” by former Disney director Richard Rich, was approved in principle on May 16 by Al-Azhar’s Center for Islamic Research provided that an image […]

HOTEL owners and bar owners in the northern Nigerian city of Kano have threatened to take ‘self-defence’ measures against Islamic militants who have destroyed hundreds of gallons of alcohol in recent days. Members of the Hisbah, a state-backed Islamic vigilante group that enforces implementation of the strict Islamic code, the Sharia, in northern Nigeria, at […]