THE circumstances of many women who had killed their husbands or partners had not been adequately taken into account by the country’s courts, says the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation?s Lisa Vetten. Vetten, who is calling for a presidential pardon for women in abusive relationships who are convicted of murdering their husbands, […]

AT least seven people died and 51 were injured on Sunday when rival fans invaded the pitch during a football match in Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of Congo. An eyewitness said victims were trampled to death and asphyxiated when panic broke out. Police intervened using teargas after rival fans began exchanging insults and hurling […]

THE coalition backing Senegal’s President Abdoulaye Wade, winner of a historic presidential election in March 2000, seems to have swept early legislative elections. According to first results issued during the night the Sopi (Change) coalition built around Wade’s liberal Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS) was well ahead of its adversaries, political analysts said. With nearly 50 […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday IN the years since the landmark Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the world has forged ahead to feed, clothe and house its people – at a steep environmental expense, organisers of the next summit said. A decade after Rio, world leaders and environmentalists will gather again in Johannesburg in […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday THE Congress of South African Students (Cosas) is set to clash with the government after it vowed to prevent pupils from going to Gautengs private and former Model C schools, The Star newspaper reports. The student body was also said to have threatened to wreck classrooms at the schools. The […]

SOME 330 skeletons, including those of women and children, have been recovered from a mass grave – dating from Algeria’s bloody independence war 40 years ago – at the village of Cheria, some 430km east of the capital Algiers. The grave could contain as many as 600 bodies, said to have been shot by special […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Nairobi | Tuesday SOME 20 agencies working in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) began a three-day suspension of activities on Monday to protest last week’s brutal killing of six colleagues from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). ”To express our solidarity with the ICRC, our outrage and our need to […]

A COURT in mainly Muslim northern Nigeria has sentenced two Christians to one-year jail terms for selling alcohol, a court official said on Friday. A magistrate court in Gusau, the capital of Zamfara state, on Thursday sentenced Anthony Agumu and Frank Idoko each to one year in prison or an option of paying a 10,000 […]

SEX remains an essential activity for the elderly, and can extend lifespans, but it needs to be part of a total human experience to be enjoyed in advanced years, a medical conference was told on Friday. Biological changes that come with ageing as well as disease, depression and stress can affect sexual performance and satisfaction, […]

THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) has agreed for the first time in 17 years to lay down a formula for Sudan to repay its $20bn debts, says Central Bank governor Sabir al-Hassan. Sudanese Finance Minister Abdel Rahim Mahmoud Hamdi had asked IMF managing director Horst Koehler to speed up implementation of the plan. Hassan also […]