ETHIOPIA says it will not withdraw its army from inside Eritrea until the Asmara government honoured its own redeployment commitments. The Defence Ministry said Ethiopia would consider withdrawing after a United Nations peacekeeping mission had deployed along the border and confirmed the geography of a temporary security zone. Ethiopia’s army holds large chunks of undisputed […]

SOUTH African security guards have ended an often-violent 17-day strike after five mainly black employer organisations reached an agreement with nine unions. A mediator said the agreement provided for reducing the working week to 50 hours, a minimum salary of R1 300 a month, maternity benefits, the establishment of a commission to investigate HIV/Aids in […]

TUNISIA’S communications ministry has cut Internet subscription rates in half, and says privatisation of the telecommunications sector will probably begin this year. Monthly charges for subscribing to the Internet for a family dropped from 21 dinars ($15) to 10 dinars ($7), while professional subcribers saw their fees reduced from about $33 to $14 a month, […]

THE first passenger train in over two years this week travelled along a key railway line in the central African state of Congo. The train on the 512km Congo-Ocean line, linking the Atlantic port of Pointe-Noire to the capital Brazzaville, carried 396 passengers for an overnight run that took 12 hours. Freight services on the […]

THE Zimbabwe government has laid off more than 2_000 civil servants in ongoing moves to streamline the public sector, the state workers union said. Thousands of workers from the education ministry were handed letters of termination when they turned up for work this week, the Government Workers Association (GWA) said. Although civil servants were notified […]

THE International Monetary Fund has given final approval to a three-year loan totalling $76m for Niger to help that country’s anti-poverty efforts. The IMF’s executive board acted after the World Bank last week approved Niger’s interim poverty reduction plan. Per capita income in Niger has fallen by 40% over the last two decades, the IMF […]

OWN CORRESPONDENTS, Johannesburg | Thursday WORLD Health Organisation (WHO) experts will visit South Africa this week to help contain a cholera epidemic that has already claimed 53 lives in KwaZulu-Natal and threatens to spill over into neighbouring provinces. The move comes a day after health authorities in Mpumalanga confirmed that a cholera case at Machadodorp […]

THE man caught on film stabbing and mugging a teenager in Sea Point, Cape Town, earlier this week has handed himself over to the police. The 35-year old suspect gave himself up at the Woodstock police after police had recovered the vehicle used in the attack. A SABC cameraman captured the brutal attack on 17-year […]

OWN CORRESPONDENTS, Cape Town | Thursday THE family of a British teenager watched in horror as she was crushed to death by the cable car mechanism on Table Mountain, moments after she had apparently ignored warnings not to enter a restricted area. Cara Weaver, 14 – described by family members as fun-loving and sporty – […]