A RWANDAN nun testified on Monday that a former fellow nun at a Rwanda convent encouraged refugees who had sought shelter there to leave in order to spare the nuns’ lives during the country’s 1994 genocide. Sister Gertrude, former mother superior of the convent, and Sister Maria Kisito are accused of premeditated murder and crimes […]

SIERRA Leonean rebels said their positions had again been attacked by a government militia as they arrived in Freetown on Monday for landmark talks to secure a ceasefire and a timetable for disarmament. The talks in Freetown are a follow-up to a meeting in Nigeria earlier this month, when both sides agreed to keep to […]

SARAH BOSELEY, London | Monday The South African government has no intention of buying the antiretroviral drugs that can keep people with HIV/Aids alive in spite of its courtroom victory over pharmaceutical companies that were trying to block the import of cheap medicines, says its health minister. In an interview with the Guardian, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang […]

YOWERI MUSEVENI was sworn in on Saturday for a final five-year term as Uganda’s president in the presence of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi and four other African leaders. In his first announcement after taking the oath of office, the Ugandan president said that on Gaddafi’s advice he was ready to restore diplomatic relations with neighbouring Sudan, […]

SOUTH African men are “too big” for standard condoms issued by the government, according to a national survey of prostitutes, The Sunday Times reported. “Most (prostitutes) complained that these things break because they come from the Far East and they’re too small for local men,” said researcher Ted Leggett, from the University of Natal. He […]

KENYAN authorities on Monday dropped a treason charge against an opposition member of parliament accused of calling for the killing of President Daniel arap Moi and instead charged him with incitement to violence, Kenyan state-run radio reported. Maina Kamanda, MP for the Starehe constituency in Nairobi and member of the Democratic Party, had 10 days […]

THE trial in Libya of six Bulgarians accused of deliberately infecting 393 Libyan children with the HIV virus was adjourned on Sunday for the twelfth time, Bulgarian state television reported. The court, responding to Deputy Foreign Minister Marin Raikov’s request for a “transparent, objective, depoliticised and fair” trial, decided that witnesses would be called to […]

PROMINENT Tunisian human rights lawyer Nejib Hosni, renowned for defending Muslim fundamentalist activists, was freed under a presidential pardon on Saturday. He was jailed on December 21 to serve a two-week sentence for the unlawful practice of his profession even though he is registered by the Tunisian bar association. As the sentence ran out on […]

A CONTINGENT of 115 Moroccan troops arrived in the eastern city of Goma on Saturday to take part in the UN Observer Mission (MONUC) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The troops joined an initial contingent of just over 100 Moroccans who arrived on Thursday. The arrival of the forces completes the deployment of […]