THE World Bank has approved a $50m interest-free credit to help Kenya improve its health care sector and step up the campaign against Aids. The bank described HIV/Aids as a “development crisis,” noting that the prevalence rate for HIV among people in Kenya 15 to 49 years old has been increasing an average of 11% […]

THE Russian-built Antonov planes sold to private Angolan companies are wrecks that are banned from flying in former Soviet states, says Angola’s ambassador to Russia. Antonov aircraft have been in 11 major accidents since 1995 in Angola. The most recent, on November 15, killed 57 people in Luanda. Investigators said engine failure and negligence by […]

THE Agency for the Safety of Air Navigation in Africa (ASECNA) is to invest around $231m over the next five years to improve flight safety. The agency overlooks the safety of flights from 24 airports, over a space covering 16 million square kilometres. Christian Pallot of the board said the agency had improved the quality […]

THE son of Nigeria’s late military ruler Sani Abacha has failed in an attempt to have his trial for a 1996 murder thrown out, court officials said. The Ikeja High Court dismissed an appeal by lawyers acting for Mohammed Abacha that there was no case to answer, a spokesman for the court said. Abacha was […]

ETHIOPIA and Eritrea have signed a peace agreement formally ending a two-year border war that cost tens of thousands of lives in the impoverished Horn of Africa. The conflict between the two nations, often plagued by famine and drought and among the world’s poorest countries, erupted in May 1998 following frequent border skirmishes. Eritrea was […]

SOME 102 Unita rebels have turned themselves in to government forces in Cuando-Cubango province under an amnesty adopted last month by Angola’s parliament. They include a captain, a lieutenant and two corporals. Parliament approved the amnesty on November 29, and about 500 rebels have already handed themselves in around the country, army General Joao Baptista […]

An Egyptian-Japanese bid to extract DNA samples from the mummy of Egypt’s legendary pharaoh Tutankhamun has been postponed for bureaucratic reasons, a project coordinator said. Researchers trying to determine Tutankhamun’s lineage were to have begun probing his cadaver at his tomb in the southern city of Luxor on Tuesday. Researchers hope to determine whether Tutankhamun […]

ANGRY residents of Uganda’s northwestern Masindi district chased away two men sent in to bury victims of the deadly Ebola virus for fear they would spread the disease, a health official said. World Health Organisation (WHO) expert Ray Arthur said his team last week brought two experienced burial workers from the northern town of Gulu […]

THREE men charged with detonating teargas in a Durban nightclub, causing a stampede in which 13 children died, have been found guilty of culpable homicide. Judge Jan Hugo found each of the men – connected to a rival nightclub – guilty on 13 counts of culpable homicide, 56 counts of common assault and one count […]