THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Sunday scolded the Congo-Brazzaville government for excessive spending, massive customs fraud and the slow pace of privatisation, saying the country could not yet qualify for debt relief. An IMF delegation visiting oil-rich Congo said money doled out to the country’s bloated civil service would make it difficult to meet […]

THE Kalashnikov rifle is one of the past century’s greatest inventions, Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi said as he welcomed Mikhail Kalashnikov to Libya, sources quoted by Interfax news agency said. “The Kalashnikov assault rifle is one of the most important inventions of the 20th century and will long remain so for most countries in the […]

HEAVY flooding on Sunday left about 200 families homeless in Nigeria’s central Benue State, official radio Nigeria reported. The affected residents of Ogbadigbo municipality were taking refuge in churches and mosques in the area, the radio said. The rains lasted for about two hours, it said. – AFP

Kampala | Sunday MORE than 240 people have been killed in a violent witch hunt around the town of Aru in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) during the past two weeks, the Ugandan military said on Saturday. The lynchings appear to have started when a rumour spread in the border area that witches possessed […]

Hansie Cronje’s lawyers went on the offensive on Saturday in search of the indemnity from criminal prosecution the former South African captain is seeking from the South African government. Cronje, banned from cricket for life after becoming involved in a betting scandal, stands to win the indemnity if the government decides he has told the […]

Johannesburg | Monday INTERNATIONAL rating agency Standard & Poor’s said on Monday it was unlikely to upgrade South Africa’s credit rating in the absence of improved economic growth and labour relations. Standard & Poor assigned South Africa a stable outlook rating last year, while Moody’s placed the country on positive ratings watch. Finance Minister Trevor […]

Pilanesberg | Sunday SOUTH African President Thabo Mbeki, several ministers and some 60 journalists on Saturday ended an extraordinary meeting aimed at mending the troubled relationship between his government and the press, a report said. Mbeki closed the two-day meeting in Pilanesberg northwest of Johannesburg with an admission that government was partly to blame for […]

Cape Town | Saturday RESEARCHERS in South Africa and Britain have isolated the gene that causes retinitis pigmentosa, a leading cause of inherited blindness affecting one million people worldwide, a report said on Friday. Two scientists from the University of Cape Town and one from Britain have identified the culprit gene as RP13, which carries […]

EMSIE FERREIRA, Cape Town | Saturday TEN years ago the foundation stones of apartheid fell when the laws that divided people into black and white and forced them to live apart were wiped from South Africa’s statute books. The Population Registration Act of 1950, which required that everybody be classified at birth as belonging to […]

GRIFFIN SHEA, Harare ZIMBABWE’S powerful trade unions on Saturday declared a two-day national stayaway for next week, despite warnings from government that the protest over fuel prices was illegal. The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) decided after a special meeting Saturday “to carry out a two-day mass national protest on Tuesday July 3 and […]