EMSIE FERREIRA, Cape Town | Wednesday SOUTH Africa is revamping its immigration laws to make it easier for foreigners to work in the country, but employers will have to pay a special tax on their salaries in many cases. Elderly foreign nationals will also find it easier to retire in South Africa under the bill, […]

AN Egyptian court sentenced four Egyptians to death on Tuesday for the gang rape of a woman who was five months pregnant. The armed assailants forced her husband to look on, a court official said. Barakat Hassan, 23, Hani Sabet, 22, Khaled Moslem, 22, and Harras Badie, 19, were sentenced in the southern Cairo suburb […]

THE Islamic Development Bank (IDB) announced Sunday a $7.3-million (8.5-million-euro) loan to Chad for educational projects. The loan will finance the construction and development of schools and a French-Arab bilingual training scheme for school teachers, the Jeddah-based bank said in a statement. The new loan raises to 69 million dollars the total funds granted by […]

THE Malawi parliament has passed a controversial bill which strips lawmakers of their seats if they defect to other parties or declare themselves independent, a parliamentary representative said on Wednesday. Roderick Mlonya said the bill, passed on Tuesday, was met with strong protest from the opposition Alliance For Democracy (AFORD). The bill stipulates that when […]

Cape Town | Thursday A RULING by the New York Supreme Court allowing South Africa to use the Internet domain name southafrica.com sets a precedent “for other countries who want their name back,” Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri said on Wednesday. The court on Monday dismissed an application for an interdict from Seattle-based internet company Virtual […]

POLICE in northern Tanzania were holding 17 people on Wednesday and had seized nine tonnes of marijuana, state-owned radio Tanzania reported on Wednesday. Quoting regional police commander Paul Ntobi in Mara, the radio said that the suspects were arrested in four villages, following a swoop launched after a tip-off by local citizens. Ntobi said some […]

Pretoria | Wednesday SOUTH African Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin denied on Tuesday that the government deliberately misled the public about the cost of a multi-billion dollar strategic defence package. Speaking at a public hearing into alleged corruption into the $5.5-billion deal, Erwin defended an original cost estimation in 1998 that put the price […]

EVELYN LEOPOLD, United Nations | Thursday WITH red ribbons emblazoning the New York skyline, the first high-level UN Aids conference opens next week, attended by 180 nations, many from nations hardest hit by the killer disease. Louise Frechette, the UN deputy secretary-general, said governments, aid bodies and UN agencies had been more active than expected […]

South African stocks struggled higher in thin midday trade on Monday, helped by gains in the bourse’s biggest counter Anglo American Plc, traders said. The all-share index was 0.09 percent higher at 9,169.2 points by 1030 GMT, after dipping briefly lower in opening trade. – Reuters