THE Zimbabwean government had dropped nine farms owned by the South African Oppenheimer mining dynasty from a list of commercial farms to be seized for land redistribution, the state-controlled Herald reported on Thursday. “Some 180 farms, among them six owned by foreign nationals and nine belonging to the Oppenheimer family, have been spared from acquisition,” […]

AUTHORITIES in eastern Nigeria have closed down a local government-run orphanage while an investigation is carried out into child trafficking and prostitution charges, an official said on Tuesday. The Umuoji Motherless Babies’ Home is run by officials of the Idemili North local government. Authorities had become suspicious last week and had raided the home and […]

TWENTY people were injured in Malawi on Tuesday when supporters of President Bakili Muluzi’s ruling party clashed with opposition supporters in the capital Lilongwe, witnesses said. The witnesses said the United Democratic Front’s youth wing – the Young Democrats – were targetting supporters of National Democratic Alliance, led by Brown Mpinganjira, a former cabinet minister. […]

PAUL KIRK, Durban | Friday DURBAN’S R10-million metro police video surveillance system has caught out a rogue metro cop – nearly three years after he attacked a handcuffed suspect for no apparent reason. This week the Mail & Guardian was given a copy of a police videotape that clearly shows an obviously defenceless suspect being […]

NAIROBI | Tuesday CONCERNS over the environmental and social effects of a Japanese-funded hydro-electric power project in Kenya are threatening to stall construction of the dam, a Japanese diplomat said on Tuesday. The first phase of the Sondu-Miriu hydro-electric power project in the west of the country is almost complete at a cost of $55-million. […]

DEFENCE lawyers on Tuesday finished their summing up in the case of two nuns accused by a Belgian court of taking part in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda that claimed up to 800_000 lives. The two lawyers representing one of the nuns, Sister Kizito, rejected the testimony of prosecution witnesses, describing their statements as a […]

HARARE | Wednesday ZIMBABWE war veterans threatened on Tuesday to boycott the funeral of their controversial leader, Chenjerai Hitler Hunzvi, if the government fails to award him national hero status, the state news agency said. Hunzvi, who led a bloody campaign of invasions of white commercial farms which started last year, died here Monday from […]

THE Namibian government has spent about N$300-million in fighting HIV-Aids over the last 10 years, Health Deputy Minister Richard Kamwi told Parliament. Kamwi said more money is needed to make the anti-retroviral drugs available to Namibians. According to Kamwi the use of condoms by sexually active adults has risen from one per cent in 1992 […]

BLACK and white Namibian farmers joined forces on Monday to put pressure on the government to speed up land reform to avoid Zimbabwe-style farm invasions, The Namibian reported on Tuesday. “Although many of our people … need land to improve their living conditions, political anarchy, violence, land-grabbing and farm invasions and mismanagement should be avoided […]