ANNIE THOMAS, Bamako, Mali | Tuesday THE chiefs of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have held talks with African presidents on development issues, after earlier facing down demonstrators who accused them of fuelling poverty on the continent. During the closed-door meeting both sides exchanged ideas and opinions on how best to eradicate poverty […]

ANGOLAS UNITA rebels attacked a vehicle belonging to the state diamond-mining group Endiama at the weekend, killing three people, the Roman Catholic missionary news agency Misna reported on Monday. The rebels ambushed the vehicle near the town of Nzaji, in the northeastern Lunda Norte province where Endiama has extensive diamond-mining operations, Misna said. Two of […]

THE United Nations is investigating allegations of serious corruption in its Kenya office responsible for resettling refugees, a case that has prompted death threats against some staff. “They are looking into allegations of fraud and wrongdoing, that individuals were paying UNHCR staff, among others, to be resettled,” said Paul Stromberg of the UN High Commissioner […]

MOLTEN lava from east DRC’s Mount Nyamuragira, which erupted February 6, is helping Rwandan troops in the area to dislodge Hutu extremist militias. Kigali has long justified its support of rebels in the DRC with the need to counter the threat posed by extremist groups such as the Interahamwe which helped carry out the 1994 […]

SOUTH African maize futures fell sharply on Monday as rains swept across key grain growing belts, offering hope to despairing farmers, cooperatives said. The weather bureau predicted scattered thundershowers for the maize-growing North West province and heavy falls in the north-east of the Free State province, another key maize producing region. “The crisis we had […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Durban | Tuesday HUNDREDS of subsistence farmers in KwaZulu-Natal have threatened violence and Zimbabwe-style land invasions if they are moved from land near Mandeni they claim as theirs, but whose title is held by descendants of the first white Zulu chief, John Dunn. “If the land affairs minister says the people must be […]

THE Namibian government said on Monday it would provide food relief to more than 21 000 San families living in the country’s northeastern Caprivi region, which has been ravaged by a famine. Emergency Management Unit Deputy Director Gabriel Kangouua said 537 tonnes of food would be distributed from about 160 points in the region in […]

PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni took his re-election campaign to northern Uganda this weekend but seemed to make little impression in an area that has been ravaged by war and is traditionally hostile to him. Several thousand people turned out to see him at a rally in the northern town of Gulu but there was little enthusiasm, […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, San Francisco | Tuesday A WORLDWIDE network of no-fishing zones may be the last, best hope of replenishing the Earth’s depleted stocks of fish and other marine species, an international team of scientists reports. Overfishing, pushed by a hungry world’s demand for seafood, has moved species of fish toward extinction, the researchers say, […]

TWO South African labour department officials have been suspended and face internal charges relating to a factory fire in which 11 workers burnt to death last year. “We have reason to believe there was ineptitude and dereliction of duty,” Labour Department Director General Rams Ramashia said, adding that two senior managers were to be charged. […]