NIGERIA and South Africa are expected to sign a military training pact, A Nigerian defence representative said on Wednesday. Ganiyu Adewale said the date and scope of the military training were still being worked out. Nigerian defence chief Ibrahim Ogohi said Nigeria will soon start the exchange of naval cadets with South Africa. The countries […]

PAUL KIRK, Durban | Friday CHIPPY Shaik, the suspended Department of Defence procurement chief, was allowed to make significant changes to the September 2000 arms report the auditor general submitted to Parliament. One alteration – relating to the contract to supply corvette components – clearly served the interests of a contractor in which Shaik’s brother […]

A MALAWIAN minister said on Wednesday the Danish ambassador to Malawi was recalled to his country in October because he was “rude” to President Bakili Muluzi. Finance minister Mathews Chikaonda said that Danish ambassador Orla Bakdal was recalled to Copenhagen for “mannerisms against the head of state.” “It had nothing to do with development aid,” […]

South Africa is to ban the use of plastic bags in a bid to rid the country of litter, the country’s government announced on Wednesday. The ban on the flimsy bags, handed out free to shoppers at all major stores, will be phased-in over the coming months after the South African Cabinet agreed in principle […]

HEALTH experts from seven central African countries held talks on Tuesday in Bangui aimed at relaunching a regional campaign against African trypanosomiasis, or sleeping sickness. At the talks in the Central African capital, the experts condemned the slack efforts to combat the illness, transmitted by the tse-tse fly, in the region over the past ten […]

KWAZULU-Natal police have found the bodies of two men believed to have been killed five days ago at a shack at the Shaya Moya squatter camp in Ixopo. Outside the shack several 9mm cartridges were found. Captain Vishnu Naidoo on Thursday said Mfaniseni Cele, 41, and Du Dlamini (29) were last seen alive last Saturday, […]

THE Amazon, which today represents a quarter of the planet’s forests and is one of its most diverse reserves of plants and animals, could disappear within the next 50 years, environmental pressure group Greenpeace warned on Tuesday. At the current rate of destruction, the Amazon will be reduced in 50 years time to scattered clumps […]

A 33-year-old home affairs department official appeared in the Louis Trichardt Magistrate’s Court on Thursday after she allegedly accepted a bribe from an illegal immigrant, Northern Province police reported. Captain Ailwei Mushavhanamadi said Rebecca Monisi was granted R1000 bail and the case was postponed until December 7. Monisi was arrested on Wednesday. ”We set a […]

MODERATE eating may help promote a longer life, according to a study of so-called Methuselah mice, who lived to the equivalent in human age of more than 150 years thanks to a reduced diet. Scientists took a batch of rodents called Ames dwarf mice, a small ”mutant” mouse which enjoys longevity thanks to a well-explored […]