SWEDISH aerospace group Saab said on Monday it would sign a joint venture with South African electronics group Grintek that would boost their combined sales by $25-40 million immediately. Saab will own 49 percent and Grintek 51 percent of the new unit, Saab Chief Executive Bengt Halse told a news conference on the sidelines of […]
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THE European Union has finally disbursed six million euros (seven million dollars) on Tuesday to finance part of Zambia’s upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections due late this year. The EU had initially withheld the money from the Zambian government on grounds that it was not happy with the government’s record. “Given the crucial importance of […]
THE South African military will try to recruit 10,000 youths a year on a voluntary basis, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota told parliament on Tuesday after ruling out conscription. “Ensuring constant access to high quality personnel is a challenge for any defence force. Consequently we are recommending to the country the introduction of a service system,” […]
TWO youths were killed when fighting broke out after Islamic vigilantes sought to close a brothel operating in a town in northern Nigeria’s Kaduna State, radio reported. The emir of Birnin Gwari, Zubairu Jibril, told the privately-owned Rima Radio here that the vigilantes entered the brothel on Sunday to close it down. Shortly afterwards, a […]
South Africa is to rename all schools named after apartheid figures, Education Minister Kader Asmal said on Monday. Asmal told journalists the names of schools honouring apartheid leaders like D.F. Malan and Hendrick Verwoerd, former prime ministers who are considered architects of the racist system, gave offence to the majority of South Africans. “A name […]
BETWEEN 13 and 27 government soldiers were killed in an ambush by a group of armed Islamic militants in the Chlef region, 200 kilometres west of the capital Algiers, Algerian newspapers reported on Tuesday. The papers blamed a faction of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) for the ambush, which took place on Sunday, of a […]
A South African court on Monday sentenced a former building society manager to 1,620 years in prison for fraud involving more than $40-million. The Johannesburg High Court sentenced Vito Assante, 50, a former branch manager of the Natal Building Society, to 15 years’ imprisonment on each of 108 charges of issuing investor certificates worth R350-million […]
EMSIE FERREIRA, Cape Town | Wednesday RESIDENTS of the remote South African fishing village of Cape Agulhas are calling on officials to solve an old geographical dispute — where do the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet? Cape Agulhas residents claim the oceans come together at their windswept bay, which is home to a few hundred […]
THE Security Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to exempt reporters and humanitarian workers in Somalia from a nine-year-old arms embargo, to enable them to wear flak jackets and helmets. It adopted a resolution stating that the embargo, imposed in January 1992, “shall not apply to protective clothing, including flak jackets and military helmets… for their […]