THREE freelance journalists in Swaziland have been warned by the state police that they should stop writing negatively about the country and the King. The journalists are Lunga Masuku of African Eye News Service, Thulani Mthethwa who does some work for British Broadcasting Corporation and South African Press Association and Bheki Matsebula who writes for […]

A Democratic Republic of Congo journalist arrested more than five months ago on defamation charges has been freed, non-governmental organisation Journalists in Danger (JED) said on Thursday. Freddy Loseke, editor of “Free Africa” publication, was freed on Tuesday after being arrested in April, JED said in a statement. He was charged following complaints by the […]

ANGELA QUINTAL, Cape Town | Sunday AFTER more than 10 years in the New National Party and three years as Western Cape Premier, Gerald Morkel, on Saturday jumped ship, but denied he was pushed. Morkel chose to do so in the NNP’s coloured heartland of Mitchell’s Plain, in front of a small, but vocal group […]

A LESOTHO High Court judge on Thursday found that the former chief executive officer of the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority, Masupha Sole, had a case to answer on all 18 counts of bribery and fraud involving millions of dollars. Sole, who pleaded not guilty to all charges, was indicted in 1999 as a sequel to […]

CLAIRE KEETON, Johannesburg | Saturday THE gang-rape of a nine-month-old baby has finally jolted South Africans into acknowledging everyday sexual violence against children, and to demand why it is so widespread. One factor is a widespread myth that sex with a virgin will cure you of Aids: some 4,7-million South Africans, or one in nine, […]

PAUL KIRK, Durban | Friday THE long-awaited report on South Africa’s R60-billion arms package, due out next week, is expected to blast officials for conflicts of interest, recommend a shake-up of tender procedures and criticise several of the weapons deals. Compiled by the Scorpions, the public protector and the auditor general, the report will update […]

AT least 30 people are feared to have drowned after a boat they were travelling in on Lake Victoria capsized on Wednesday evening near Sengerema, a few kilometres from Tanzania’s port city of Mwanza, police said on Thursday. “We are still investigating the cause of the accident, but preliminary reports indicate that the boat capsized […]

THREE children have been killed in southern Angola after playing with an unexploded mortar shell, a police representative told the Portuguese news agency Lusa on Wednesday. The three children were playing in the southern Angolan city of Lubango, the capital city of Huila province, with an 82-millimetre mortar shell they had found on wasteland in […]

A GROUP of some 50 armed separatist rebels on Wednesday attacked workers on a construction site in Casamance in Senegal, before fleeing with 12 hostages, military sources said. The attackers robbed workers of the Satom public works company while they were building a road link between the towns of Bignona and Dioulou, northwest of Casamance’s […]

SPERM count is not the only factor to be considered when diagnosing male infertility, according to a study to be published on Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers say several other factors can lead to infertility, such as the size and structure of sperm cells, in a study that calls into question […]