Maseru | Monday THE High Court of Lesotho has postponed a high-profile corporate corruption trial until December. The postponement came after pressure from lawyers for a number of Western construction companies, members of a consortium accused of paying US$2m (US$1=3D M8,20) or more in bribes over a dam-building project, and a request for more time […]

LESOTHO’S reconstituted Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) began registering voters on Monday for general elections in the politically turbulent mountain kingdom in April or May 2002. Registration of the approximately 800 000 potential voters among the population of about two million is taking place in more than 1 000 centres under the observation of all participating […]

NIGERIA Airways will soon lay off 809 workers ahead of a planned restructuring of the ailing national carrier, a press report said on Sunday. Under the exercise, which has already been approved by President Olusegun Obasanjo, the 2 309-strong workforce of the airline will be reduced by 809, the Guardian newspaper reported. It said the […]

EDUCATION experts and policy makers from across Africa meet in Kampala on Wednesday to discuss ways to overcome barriers that exclude girls from receiving a full education, conference officials said here. UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) representative Mads Oyen said that girls from across Africa will lead debate with ministers of education at the three-day forum. […]

THE South African government plans to tighten a law against land invasions to stop a growing tendency by the homeless to occupy state and private land. Housing Minister Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele said the amendment would be aimed specifically at people who organise land invasions, saying the courts had been too lenient on them. She said the […]

A SOLDIER, his wife and child were found gassed in the family car in their garage in Nelspruit on Monday. The family was found when the soldier’s colleagues from the army’s general support base in Nelspruit went to the house to investigate why the soldier had not reported for duty. Police said the 42-year-old staff […]

A GIANT ancient Egyptian statue abandoned for 15 years in the grounds of a Cairo hospital has finally been given a home in a museum, Egypt’s antiquities chief said on Monday. The statue was moved to the Arab Contractors hospital for unknown reasons from a quarry in the Red Mountain region east of Cairo, said […]

THE United Nations has condemned Britain for its policy of jailing asylum seekers while they wait to hear if their claims are successful. The acting head of the UN’s refugee agency in London says it is unacceptable for asylum seekers to be detained on arrival in Britain in prisons alongside criminals. Many are confined to […]

AN eight-year-old Nigerian girl, held by US immigration authorities for a year after entering the country illegally, has been handed over to relatives. The girl, who was abandoned by her parents in New York and taken to an immigration centre, has been handed over to her cousin, who lives in Connecticut, according to Immigration and […]