THE Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s amnesty committee has granted amnesty to the Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry Ronnie Kasrils for causing bomb explosions in and around Durban between 1961 and 1963. The committee also granted amnesty to four ANC cadres for bombing Ellis Park Stadium and killing Linus Mare and Clive Clucas in July […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Saturday PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki has denied a request from corruption-buster Judge Willem Heath to be discharged from the judiciary. Mbeki’s decision is based on Justice Minister Penuell Maduna’s recommendation, according to informed sources. Justice ministry representative Paul Setsetse confirmed that a recommendation was made to Mbeki, but referred queries to the […]
THE German government denied a report on Tuesday that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi had admitted to a German official that Tripoli was involved in the Lockerbie bombing and an attack on American soldiers at a Berlin nightclub in 1986. The Foreign Ministry, however, declined either to confirm or deny the report in the respected Frankfurter […]
Severe floods and winds in Kinshasa have left 25 people dead, several of them children, a state governor in the Democratic Republic of Congo said. The storm stuck early on Friday, with rivers in the capital bursting their banks and washing away several houses. Some homes collapsed from the wind or were damaged by falling […]
NOT a single elephant is left in the Kahuzi-Biega national park of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, while the gorilla population has been cut down to 130 from 8_000 just five years ago, a report said on Friday. An environmental magazine, The Gorilla, said that in 1996, some 3_600 elephants had been counted in the […]
POLICE in Burkina Faso have rescued 23 children from seven traffickers who planned to sell them to cotton farmers in neighbouring Benin. Thee children, aged between eight and 10, were intercepted on Sunday when they were taken to Mandjoary near the border with Benin by seven people, said local police. The accused told the police […]
THE bodies of 93 Africans who apparently died of thirst as they tried to enter Libya have been found in the desert near the country’s southern border. A Niger-registered truck carrying residents from various African countries entered Libyan territory May 8 and broke down, leaving the 93 to die. Another 26, including the Sudanese driver, […]
AT least 22 people were killed and 12 wounded when explosives blew up on the lorry on which they were travelling in Hiran in central Somalia, local authorities said. “The explosion occurred inside the vehicle, which was transporting passengers as well as explosives. There was no attack from outside,” Hiran regional governor Hassan Abdulle Qalad […]
THE Mail & Guardian newspaper has reported a steady climb in it’s circulation figures to reach a record high in its 16-year history. From a circulation base that dropped to a monthly low of about 32_000 in 1999, the M&G has now grown more than 30% (unaudited) as compared to its lowest circulation figures of […]
ZAMBIA’S Anti-Corruption Commission said on Tuesday it had launched a probe into allegations two cabinet ministers used state funds to finance elections within the ruling party. ”We are investigating the diversion of the cash from the national assembly, allegedly to finance the recently-held MMD party elections,” the commission’s director of operations Bradford Malumbe said. At […]