FEARS are mounting for the fate of some 200 Tanzanians, many of them wounded, who fled deadly political violence on Pemba island by boat, amid reports that a police helicopter fired on the vessels and dropped grenades on them. An opposition Member of Parliament in Pemba – part of Tanzania’s offshore state of Zanzibar – […]

MORE than 300 delegates from 51 countries, including nine in Africa, have gathered at the University of Cape Town to attend the 17th International Seaweed Symposium being hosted by the university and the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism. The theme of the conference is “Seaweed: Science and Technology for Sustainable Industry”. The world seaweed […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Tuesday THE stench of corruption surrounding the governments R43bn arms deal has deepened with the axing of a leading African National Congress (ANC) MP from a key party post after he voiced concern about alleged kickbacks for top ANC officials and insisted on a probe. Andrew Feinstein, who was vociferous […]

UGANDA’S former state telecommunications monopoly, now mostly owned by Germany’s Datecon, has launched the country’s third mobile phone network. UTL (Uganda Telecom Limited) Telecel’s network will initially cover Kampala and Entebbe, and plans to cover the entire country by the end of the year using facilities supplied by the French company Alcatel. Two mobile networks […]

THE government of Niger has banned hunting throughout the country in a bid to resuscitate wildlife populations. Environment Minister Issoufou Assoumane said the ban was necessary to “allow the reconstitution of the fauna.” In the past decade, the desert zones in northern Niger have become hunting playgrounds for Persian Gulf princes, who arrive for expeditions […]

GUINEA Bissau troops have killed 30 Senegalese rebels, says President Kumba Yala, adding that he deplored the attack prompted by a false report over state radio. The attack at the border between the two countries followed a false alarm broadcast over state radio that the rebels were planning an offensive against Guinea-Bissau army positions, Yala […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Abidjan | Tuesday A YEAR after a Kenya Airways Airbus plunged into the sea off Abidjan, killing 169 people, investigators are no closer to determining the cause of the accident, blaming the delays on a faulty black box and inaccessible wreckage. The plane crashed into the sea on January 30, 2000, two minutes […]

MATTHEW LEE, Washington | Tuesday THE Democratic Republic of Congos (DRC) undemocratically elected president, the fresh-faced Joseph Kabila (29), is to visit the United States this week for talks here and at the United Nations. Kabila, who succeeded his murdered father as president only last week, is to begin his two-day visit in Washington on […]