Pretoria | Wednesday PLANS of a plot to oust South African President Thabo Mbeki proved to be untrue, the country’s safety and security minister said on Tuesday, in an about-face since the allegations surfaced in April. Steve Tshwete, who publicly accused three senior African National Congress members of plotting to oust Mbeki, told journalists that […]

EGYPTIAN archeologists discovered a Pharaonic stele bearing the image of a sun goddess near the Karnak temple in Luxor, 480 kilometers south of Cairo. “The team discovered the stele of the goddess Suwas a week ago when they were cleaning the temple of the goddess Mout,” the council’s director Gaballah Ali Gaballah said. Suwas is […]

Moscow | Thursday RUSSIAN diamond monopoly Alrosa could scale down supply to South African diamond giant De Beers, with whom it has an accord for selling Russian diamonds on international markets, a finance ministry official said on Wednesday. A governmental commission responsible for the development of the diamond industry is to call on Alrosa, supplier […]

NIGERIA’S state-run radio has banned its stations nationwide from broadcasting rap music, considered immoral by Muslim and Christian conservatives. A directive from the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) asked all broadcasters to note that “rap music is banned in all FRCN stations”. The directive, which was issued in October, violates the rights of young […]

A PROMINENT Nigerian Aids activist received death threats on Tuesday hours after appearing on television and criticising a controversial doctor’s claim to have found a cure for the disease. Former military intelligence officer Mohammed Farouk, leader of the Nigerian Aids Alliance, said the threats came after he criticised the controversial doctor Jeremiah Abalaka during an […]

CLAIRE KEETON, Cape Town | Thursday A MAN has been detained in Cape Town for questioning in connection with murder of former First Lady Marike de Klerk (64) police said on Thursday morning. Representative for the national commissioner’s office, Sally de Beer, said police believed they had enough reason to detain the man. She did […]

Pretoria | Thursday A SOUTH African farmer and a member of a local vigilante group were jailed for nine and seven years respectively on Wednesday for beating a suspected tomato thief to death and seriously injuring another. The Pretoria High Court sentenced Ockert Werner (35) and Marius van Antwerp (31) for beating two men with […]

Queenstown | Thursday A YOUNG initiate died at the Cecilia Makiwane Hospital (CMH) in Mdantsane in the Eastern Cape on Wednesday following a botched circumcision. Two other initiates, who are being treated at the Butterworth Hospital, lost their penises this week after developing gangrene. At least 29 initiates are receiving treatment at various hospitals around […]

A man appeared in the Upington Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday on charges of attempting to rape a 101-year-old woman, Northern Cape police said on Wednesday. Inspector Chantel Manuel said the incident occurred in the town around 5.30pm on Saturday. The woman’s granddaughter arrived at home and found the man, who visits her grandmother regularly in […]