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

SOUTH Africas main Freedom Day celebration in Pietersburg was off to a cheerful start on Friday despite cool and rainy weather. People packing the pavilion of the rugby stadium were unfazed by a slight drizzle as cultural performances got underway. The crowd will later in the day be addressed by Northern Province premier Ngoako Ramathlodi […]

FORMER US President Bill Clinton arrived in Nigeria late on Wednesday ahead of a two-day regional summit on HIV/AIDS, airport sources said. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan arrived in the Nigerian capital a little earlier for the two-day summit, on Aids, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases, involving nearly 50 African heads of state. Clinton was […]

POLICE in Swaziland said on Thursday they had arrested a 40-year-old man in connection with the murders of 29 people, mostly women, whose bodies were found buried in shallow graves in a forest. Four babies were among the dead. Some of the women’s bodies were found lying face down with their hands tied behind their […]

THE South African rand retained its firm foothold on Wednesday morning floated by positive sentiment, dealers said. The rand was last quoted at R8.0820 to the U.S. dollar from a previous close of 8.0700. “Dollars have been long and dealers have been clearing their long positions, which has helped the rand firm quite a bit,” […]

FOREIGN shareholding in SA pulp and paper group Sappi has now surpassed the 60% mark, the company said on Thursday. This followed strong buying from US and other international institutions in recent weeks, it said. The group said 37% of its shares were now held by US shareholders and 23% by European and other foreign […]

AUTHORITIES at the University of Benin, in Nigeria’s southern Edo State, have expelled another 108 students for forging their credentials. The latest expulsions bring to 178 the total number of students sent away this month for forging their credentials. At least 1_000 students have been expelled from various academic institutions in Nigeria over the past […]

FORMER president Nelson Mandela and media company Naspers will launch two internet technology centres in the Karoo towns of Calitzdorp and Carnarvon on Thursday. Both towns will each receive an internet technology centre. Calitzdorp was identified by the Department of Health as one of the most underprivileged towns in South Africa. Each centre has been […]

THE Reverend Leon Sullivan, the civil rights crusader who wrote the Sullivan Principles, an international code of business conduct that helped end apartheid in South Africa, has died of leukemia. He was 78. Sullivan, a former Philadelphia minister described the principals as “a code that companies of America and the world came to follow to […]