MICROSOFT founder Bill Gates expanded his philanthropic activities on Saturday, as his foundation announced a $100m grant to help develop vaccines to fight AIDS. We should remember that a death from AIDS in Africa brings with it just as much pain as a death of one of our own family or friends,” said the billionaire […]

THE national president of Benin’s voodoo cult, Sossa Guedehoungue, has died in a Cotonou clinic after a short illness. The 88-year-old Guedehoungue was in 1991 designated president of the cult by the country’s voodoo priests. Benin is the cradle of voodoo, with 61% of the population initiates or faithful to the traditional religion. The voodooists […]

SIX people have been injured in three separate bomb attacks in the Ugandan capital Kampala. Police said the home-made bombs all went off nearly at the same time, at about 8 pm. The first two bombs went off near the city’s main bus terminus while a third exploded in a southern suburb. Among those injured […]

SOUTH African markets face a barrage of December economic data this week, including delayed inflation figures which are expected to provide clues to the outlook for the direction of interest rates. Consumer data on Tuesday and producer price figures on Wednesday are likely to command most of the attention, although a policy meeting of the […]

BEN HIRSCHLER, Davos, Switzerland | Monday SOUTH African President Thabo Mbeki has led a group of political leaders in slamming globalisation for having failed the world’s poor, and called for reform of global institutions to protect the poverty-stricken. Echoing street protests outside the World Economic Forum, Mbeki condemned the impoverishment of millions caught in Africa’s […]

ALGERIAN rebels have slashed the throats of 25 villagers, including 16 children and teenagers and four women, in the worst massacre in Algeria this year. The massacre occurred at El Guetaibia village, 220km west of Algiers, on Saturday night, and brought the number of people killed in Algeria to more than 90 this month. More […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Sunday AN explosion went off early on Sunday at the building housing the printing press of Zimbabwe’s only independent daily, staff at the paper and witnesses said. The blast happened at about 1:30 a.m. Sunday according to residents in Harare’s Southerton neighbourhood. The blast came two days after militant war veteran […]

SWAZILAND has accused the international community of ignoring appeals for aid as more than 13 000 people in its rural areas face starvation. The agriculture ministry said repeated calls for emergency food aid for people whose crops were damaged by devastating floods in early 2000 had gone unheeded. Analysts blame the country?s inability to feed […]

TWO Witbank men, aged 24 and 21, have been arrested in connection with having sex with schoolgirls younger than 16. Johan Theodorus Marx, 24, and Arnold Steven Wright, 21, were not asked to plead in the Witbank Magistrate’s Court. They were arrested after police responded to a tip-off that the men allegedly had relationships with […]