MORE than 3.2 million Sudanese are facing serious food and water shortages due to the combined disruptions of civil war and drought, the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) said this week. The Rome-based WFP said: ”If prompt action is not taken now, there is a danger that the tragic scenes of 1998, in which […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Thursday CAPE TOWN police and health officials have been left dumbstruck by the devastation wrought on a suburban home by more than 1_000 rats thought to have been taken from a laboratory and kept as pets. Gwynneth Quick, 39, is under psychiatric observation while exterminators gassed the rodents, which had […]
SOUTH African Breweries says it would be interested in acquiring the brewing units of Britain’s Bass after Britain blocked Belgian Interbrew’s 2.3 billion pound Bass takeover. But an SAB spokesman in London said the South African brewer would only consider such a move, which follows the decision of the British competition authority to block the […]
MANOAH ESIPISU, Lusaka | Thursday ZAMBIAN President Frederick Chiluba’s ruling party has taken its first formal step towards his election for a currently unconstitutional third term – and political analysts say he is likely to stay in power. Chiluba appears to be behind an orchestrated campaign by his Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) to persuade […]
THE Zimbabwe government has hiked hospital fees by between 50% and 100% from January 1. Consultation fees went up from 75 dollars to 150 dollars for children while adults now pay 300 dollars, up from 169 dollars, at government hospitals, the report said. Due to under-funding, exacerbated by the escalating costs of treating the HIV/Aids […]
A KENYAN teenager killed herself on New Year’s Eve when her parents refused to allow her to attend a performance by Jamaican pop star Shaggy, according to reports. Nation FM radio station said the teenager, a resident of the western Nairobi suburb of Kangemi, took an overdose of anti-malaria tablets and died on the way […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maputo | Sunday MORE than 150_000 Mozambicans mostly peasant farmers – are facing devastating floods for the second time in 11 months following the opening of sluice gates on the Kariba Dam in neighbouring Zambia. Mozambique is still recovering from massive floods in February and March, which killed 700, destroyed the homes or […]
THE government of Mauritius plans to turn the country into a free trade zone for the information technology (IT) sector, Prime Minister Anerood Jugnauth has announced. “The year 2001 will be marked by the relaunch of the Mauritian economy,” he said. “We want to make Mauritius an information technology free trade zone with digital parks.” […]
WOMEN’S rights in Ethiopia, a predominantly patriarchal society, are set to improve with the coming into effect of a new law which, among other measures, targets forced marriages. Under the Family Law, which the Daily Monitor newspaper on Tuesday reported had been promulgated Monday after being approved by parliament in July, the minimum age for […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Durban | Wednesday AS holidaymakers and migrant workers start leaving KwaZulu-Natal at the end of the holiday season health authorities fear the spread of the cholera epidemic which has claimed 53 lives in the province. The pandemic which broke out in northern KwaZulu-Natal five months ago, has infected 12 715 people. Fears about […]