SUE PLEMING and OWN CORRESPONDENT, Washington | Tuesday SOUTH African President Thabo Mbeki touched down at the Andrews Air Force base outside Washington last night, and is scheduled to meet US President George Bush in the Oval office on Tuesday to discuss his Millennium Africa Recovery Plan (MAP). MAP is aimed at fostering stability and […]

THE Sunday Times reports today that South African National Defence Force chief has admitted that he received a R500_000 Mercedes Benz at a massive discount from the same company that allegedly supplied a similar vehicle to ANC chief whip Tony Yengeni, while negotiations over the country’s R43-billion arms deal were underway. General Siphiwe Nyanda received […]

A SWEDISH -registered ship in difficulty off the west African coast with 186 Liberian passengers aboard is trying to make it to Ghana with little fuel remaining, according to the Swedish captain’s wife. “We have no idea where the ship is,” said Eva Furberg, wife of the ship’s 52-year-old Swedish captain, Henning Kielberg, by phone […]

UGANDAN troops have overrun a camp of northern Ugandan rebels inside Sudan, killing 22 rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army, Ugandan military commander Brigadier Henry Tumukunde said on Sunday . Tumukunde said Ugandan troops crossed some 20 kilometres into Sudan on Wednesday and attacked a small LRA camp at the village of Lumarati. A cache […]

A WOMAN was killed and her six-year-old son was injured on Sunday after they stepped on an anti-personnel landmine near Burundi’s capital Bujumbura, witnesses said. “We heard a landmine explosion and then a little girl covered in blood arrived saying her mother and brother were lying on the floor and could not move,” said a […]

LEGISLATORS in Tanzania’s semi-autonomous Zanzibar and Pemba said on Thursday they want the twin Indian Ocean islands to be allowed to join the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), despite longstanding opposition from Tanzania’s federal government. Several members of Zanzibar House of Representatives (parliament) have expressed concern over federal opposition to the move, despite numerous […]

THE speaker of the state assembly in Kano, northern Nigeria, ousted by lawmakers this week because he lightens his skin, insisted on Saturday on his “right to bleach”. Ibrahim Abdullahi Gwarmani told a daily newspaper: “I know the Koran very well and my bleaching should be viewed as my personal liberty. It does not violate […]

MOROCCO has accepted a United Nations plan offering its territory Western Sahara wide autonomy as a basis for future negotiations, the country’s UN representative announced on state television on Saturday. “Our country, which does not adhere to all the propositions, has accepted the plan as a framework and basis for future negotiations in a constructive […]

SA President Thabo Mbeki left on Monday for Washington for a two-day visit to brief US President George W. Bush on his Millennium Africa Recovery Programme (MAP) and boost bilateral ties. “The president was expected in Washington by around 7:30 in the evening,” said his representative Tasneem Carrim. Mbeki’s working visit to the United States […]

BRENDAN BOYLE, Cape Town | Monday SOURCES within the ANC say President Thabo Mbeki’s altercation on Youth Day with former first lady Winnie Madikizela-Mandela could result in a challenge to his leadership. Mbeki pushed her away, knocking off her cap, and loudly reprimanded her when she arrived late at a Youth Day rally and leaned […]