THE heads of state and representatives of five African countries decided on Monday to create a regional peacekeeping force for the Central African Republic (CAR) during a summit in the Sudanese capital, officials said. The force will be made up of soldiers from the 16 nations in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa […]

THE body of an unidentified man was found in the Bronkhorstspruit River in the town on Monday afternoon, Pretoria police said on Tuesday. Inspector Anton Breedt said the man, who was in his 20s, had been shot in the head, arm and chest. He was naked when he was found. – Sapa

A JOHANNESBURG Metropolitan traffic officer committed suicide minutes after he accidentally ran over and killed a 12-year-old boy in Dobsonville, Soweto on Monday, police said. According to Superintendent Norman Ponnusamy, the incident occurred at around 5.30pm when the Midrand-based officer apparently lost control due to bad weather and hit Tshepiso Serobatse who was seated with […]

Accra | Wednesday GHANAIAN mining giant Ashanti Goldfields Company Ltd (AGC) on Tuesday said profits after tax for the third quarter of the current year zoomed 93% to $14,5-million. A statement from AGC said profits after tax in the third quarter a year ago stood at 7.5 million dollars. Sam Jonah, AGC chief executive, meanwhile, […]

JAN RAATH, Harare | Wednesday ZIMBABWE’S Supreme Court on Tuesday declared the government’s controversial land-grabs to be legal, but the sole independent judge on the bench condemned the ruling and said the court should be ”abolished”. Farm union officials immediately advised farmers under pressure from state-backed squatters to abandon their hopes of winning protection from […]

A POST-mortem would be performed on Wednesday morning to determine the cause of Marike de Klerk’s death. The former wife of former South African president FW de Klerk was found dead in her house in Dolphin Beach, Blaauwberg, on the Cape West Coast around 4pm on Tuesday. Her hairdresser, with whom she had an appointment, […]

ORBITING between the Earth and the Sun, the Genesis spacecraft has begun collecting particles of solar wind in its giant collector arrays, the US space agency NASA said Monday. ”We expect to start getting particle hits right away. Now we’ve gotten to the real focus of the mission: the start of science,” said Donald Burnett […]

AT least 50 people have died and some 150 were injured in ethnic clashes over the weekend in Ghana’s northeastern region of Bawku, police said on Tuesday. ”A minimum of 50 people have died and at least 150 were injured in the violence which broke out over the weekend,” said a police official, speaking from […]

Gaborone | Monday A PACT to curb the trade in “blood diamonds” has been reached with agreement on international certification for rough diamond exports and imports, officials said as talks wound up in Botswana. “Blood diamonds” or “conflict diamonds” are defined as rough diamonds which are used by rebel movements to finance their activities, or […]