ZIMBABWE will late this month introduce a 500 dollar banknote (worth about nine US) due to rising inflation which has eroded the value of the currency. The largest denomination note available so far had been a 100 dollar (1.81 US) note, which was introduced in 1995. “In view of rising inflation, the 500-dollar note is […]
Harare | Tuesday AS hundreds of white farmers are driven off their properties in Zimbabwe, patients in state hospitals are dying as a result of a doctors strike. The death toll directly attributable to the strike, which begun on July 24, had shot up to at least 60 at just one of the country’s main […]
SEVENTEEN people have been killed by an armed group manning a roadblock in Algeria, locals in the Relizane region where the attack took place said on Monday. The victims, all farmworkers, were travelling on small trucks when they drove into the ambush overnight on Sunday close to the town of Sidi M’hamed Benaouda, some 300 […]
MORE than 3 000 Pakistani blue helmets have arrived in Sierra Leone and a further 1 300 are expected by the end of the month, a Pakistani military official said on UN radio on Monday. The official said the troops who had already arrived included an artillery regiment, engineers and logistics units as well as […]
Lisbon | Tuesday ANGOLAN rebels from the Union for the Total Independence of Angola (Unita) said on Monday they were responsible for a deadly ambush last week of a passenger train east of Luanda that killed more than 150 people. A Unita statement released in Portugal, Angola’s former colonial power, said at least 152 people […]
THE Algerian oil company Sonatrach and British Petroleum this weekend signed three contracts worth $2,5-billion (2.8 billion euros) for the development of gas reserves in the Algerian desert. When complete, the project is expected to yield nine billion cubic metres of natural gas per year. One contract is for a gas processing plant, pumping networks […]
Durban | Tuesday SUSPECTED treasure hunters have desecrated a mass grave of British soldiers who fought in the Anglo-Boer War, the organisation which looks after the graves reported on Monday. THE desecration of the grave of eight privates of the 27th Iniskillen Regiment at Hart’s Hill outside Ladysmith, 236 kilometres northwest of Durban, occurred at […]
SIX Central American countries have announced they are negotiating with international drugs companies to buy cheaper Aids treatments. The countries have already had individual offers of big discounts – up to 85% in some cases – but want to drive the price down further by buying in bulk. Many of the region’s health services are […]
DAVID LE PAGE Johannesburg | Tuesday THE ongoing strike in the car manufacture industry could lead to Daimler-Chrysler permanently losing a major contract for the annual production of 30_000 C-class Mercedes-Benz vehicles for the European market, the company warned its workers on Monday. The strike by 20_000 car manufacturing workers is now in its second […]
THE South African government urged its citizens on Monday to light candles, torches and lanterns on Tuesday next week to demonstrate their commitment to tolerance, and said official torches would burn until the end of a world conference against racism. Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad, who made the plea, also asked South African churches to […]