SEVEN Egyptians were ordered on Sunday to stand trial in state security court on charges of using explosives to dig for Pharaonic treasures and sell them illegally, judicial sources said. After shadowing foreign archeologists in the area of Al-Koreimat, 100 kilometers south of Cairo, the group allegedly used explosives to dig a hole 15 meters […]

Algiers | Tuesday THE Algerian government on Tuesday put the official death toll after violent storms ravaged Algeria at the weekend at 579, but the country’s press said thousands may have been killed in Algiers alone. Rescuers continued to search for bodies trapped under tonnes of rubble in the low income district of Bab El […]

Johannesburg | Wednesday SOUTH Africa’s Oppenheimer dynasty is planning to hand over some of the 140 000 hectares of farmland that the Anglo American Corporation owns in Zimbabwe for settlement by impoverished black farmers, a representative for the family said on Tuesday. The Harare-based privately owned newspaper the Daily News reported Tuesday that the government […]

Former South African president Nelson Mandela made a brief visit to Tripoli on Sunday during which he met Libyan leader Muammer Gaddafi.

KIDNEYS, livers, corneas and other body parts harvested from executed Chinese prisoners increasingly are making their way to patients in the United States, shortening a wait for organs that otherwise could stretch on for years, the New York Times reported on Sunday. According to the newspaper, more transplantable organs are available in China because more […]

Harare | Tuesday THE Zimbabwean government has warned foreign correspondents in the country against demonising it in the eyes of the world, or face the consequences of the law. In a statement issued late on Monday, Information Minister Jonathan Moyo said the ”political band of Harare-based foreign correspondents” must ready themselves ”to be subjected to […]

THE Bloemfontein High Court is expected to pass judgement in the case of Piet Odendaal who is accused of murdering his employee, Mosoko Rampuru. Odendaal (45) stands accused of killing Rampuru at his business, Odendo Construction, on August 25 last year and then dragging the body through the streets of Sasolburg behind his bakkie for […]

POLICE in Nigeria’s sprawling commercial capital, Lagos, were on Saturday preparing to prosecute a man detained after being found holding two human heads in a sack. ”We arrested the suspect on Friday carrying two human heads… We are going to prosecute him,” said Lagos State Police Commissioner Mike Okiro. The man, whose name was not […]

Cape Town | Tuesday WESTERN Cape director of public prosecutions Frank Kahn says he will not prosecute people for smoking in public places until ”sloppy draughtsmanship” in the law has been changed. The issue has been highlighted by a charge laid by a Cape Town anti-tobacco activist over smoking in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court in […]

Pretoria | Tuesday THE Pretoria High Court has for the third time this year declined to endorse a conviction of a child rape accused because a magistrate failed to hold a proper enquiry to ensure the victim was a competent witness. On Monday, Judge Johan Els set aside the rape conviction of a 26-year-old man […]