OWN CORRESPONDENT, Nairobi | Tuesday SOME 20 agencies working in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) began a three-day suspension of activities on Monday to protest last week’s brutal killing of six colleagues from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). ”To express our solidarity with the ICRC, our outrage and our need to […]

A COURT in mainly Muslim northern Nigeria has sentenced two Christians to one-year jail terms for selling alcohol, a court official said on Friday. A magistrate court in Gusau, the capital of Zamfara state, on Thursday sentenced Anthony Agumu and Frank Idoko each to one year in prison or an option of paying a 10,000 […]

SEX remains an essential activity for the elderly, and can extend lifespans, but it needs to be part of a total human experience to be enjoyed in advanced years, a medical conference was told on Friday. Biological changes that come with ageing as well as disease, depression and stress can affect sexual performance and satisfaction, […]

THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) has agreed for the first time in 17 years to lay down a formula for Sudan to repay its $20bn debts, says Central Bank governor Sabir al-Hassan. Sudanese Finance Minister Abdel Rahim Mahmoud Hamdi had asked IMF managing director Horst Koehler to speed up implementation of the plan. Hassan also […]

LIBYAN leader Moamer Kadhafi lashed out against the United States as being responsible for the AIDS scourge, in a fiery speech during Friday’s closing session of Africa’s biggest ever summit on the disease. “A vaccine and a medicine exists but there is a malevolent plot by capitalists to prevent the world from having it as […]

AMAZON.COM on Tuesday reported a 22% increase in sales and a narrower than expected loss for the first quarter, and declared itself on track to reach its profitability goals. The Seattle-based Internet retailer reported a net loss of $234m, or 66 cents a share, for the first quarter, compared with a net loss of $308m, […]

THE three men who beat a 14-year-old Bloemfontein schoolboy to death on Friday afternoon and then robbed him of R300 were likely to be arrested soon, police said on Saturday. Francois Kruger was selling sheep with two friends at a roadside in Heidedal when he was attacked and beaten with pipes. Southern Free State police […]

AN Egyptian opposition journalist has been sentenced to one month in prison and fined around $2 000 for libeling the chairman of the journalists’ union and editor of a top government daily. The appeals court found Mohammed Abu-Lawaya, a journalist with the suspended opposition Islamist daily Al-Shaab, guilty of libeling Ibrahim Nafie, head of the […]

FORTY members of the Algerian security forces were killed and 38 injured in a clash this week with armed Islamic extremists, Algerian newspapers reported on Saturday. The clash happened Thursday at Ras El-Ach, 70km south of Tebessa, which is 630km east of the capital Algiers, according to the Quotidien d’Oran and Le Matin. – AFP