THE International Monetary Fund has given final approval to a three-year loan totalling $76m for Niger to help that country’s anti-poverty efforts. The IMF’s executive board acted after the World Bank last week approved Niger’s interim poverty reduction plan. Per capita income in Niger has fallen by 40% over the last two decades, the IMF […]
OWN CORRESPONDENTS, Johannesburg | Thursday WORLD Health Organisation (WHO) experts will visit South Africa this week to help contain a cholera epidemic that has already claimed 53 lives in KwaZulu-Natal and threatens to spill over into neighbouring provinces. The move comes a day after health authorities in Mpumalanga confirmed that a cholera case at Machadodorp […]
THE man caught on film stabbing and mugging a teenager in Sea Point, Cape Town, earlier this week has handed himself over to the police. The 35-year old suspect gave himself up at the Woodstock police after police had recovered the vehicle used in the attack. A SABC cameraman captured the brutal attack on 17-year […]
OWN CORRESPONDENTS, Cape Town | Thursday THE family of a British teenager watched in horror as she was crushed to death by the cable car mechanism on Table Mountain, moments after she had apparently ignored warnings not to enter a restricted area. Cara Weaver, 14 – described by family members as fun-loving and sporty – […]
THIRTY-TWO fighters of the Angolan rebel movement UNITA have been freed under a government amnesty announced on November 10, the eve of the 25th anniversary of independence in the war-torn southern African country. UNITA, led by Jonas Savimbi, rejected the amnesty offer, but small numbers of rebel fighters have surrendered their weapons and handed themselves […]
THE Gambian government has denied claims by a United Nations panel that it is involved in trafficking so-called conflict diamonds, thereby aiding rebels in Angola and Sierra Leone. The panel fingered a number of west African countries, including Gambia, for providing a conduit for diamonds being used by rebels to fund their armed actions in […]
MORE than 100 suspected rapists were arrested during December in Gauteng after police stepped up action against sex offenders. Police said most of the victims were children who had been attacked by a family member or someone close to them. In the past four months, 14 rapists have been sentenced to between 10 and 25 […]
A LARGE crowd packed into an Islamic court in northern Nigeria to watch as two men found guilty of drinking alcohol were given 80 lashes each. The crowd burst into chants of “Allahu Akbar” (“God is Great”) as the men, 22-year-old Nugu Abdullahi and 63-year-old Sa’adu Aminu, were given their punishment. Since the introduction of […]
AN audio and lighting engineer faces possible imprisonment for allegedly insulting Zimbabwe’s president during a holiday music show. State prosecutors said Stephen Schadendorf, 35, turned spotlights on a portrait of President Robert Mugabe during a song construed as critical of Mugabe, prompting thousands of music fans to cheer and clamor for Mugabe’s ousting. Schadendorf was […]
AFRICA’S energy ministers will gather in Algeria for a five-day conference in April to prepare for an Africa-US ministerial meeting on renewable energies later this year. Algeria’s energy minister Chakib Khelil told a news briefing that the energy ministers will discuss development of the energy sector as well harmonising their legalisation to spur cooperation between […]