SWAZI farmers have been warned that their cattle would be shot dead on sight and incinerated if the animals strayed across international borders into South Africa. The warning is the latest measure in an increasingly desperate attempt to contain foot and mouth disease outbreaks in Mpumalanga province and at Swaziland’s largest abattoir. Farmers were warned […]

SENIOR ANC members and Eastern Cape MECs are expected to attend the funeral of Nomayise Hani, mother of former SA Communist Party leader Chris Hani, in Cofimvaba in the Eastern Cape. Hani, fondly known as Ma Hani, died in the arms of her daughter-in-law Dimpo Hani on November 23 at the age of 83 after […]

THE bail application of a Johannesburg doctor accused of raping his 16-year-old daughter has been postponed to January 4 next year because the docket was not in court and the investigating officer was busy elsewhere. The doctor, who may not be named to protect the identity of the victim, was arrested in November and was […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Saturday INDIAN communities in South Africa have shunned the African National Congress (ANC) in this week’s local government elections, pushed by a perception that the ruling party cares only about black people, analysts said. The community, with many families here for generations, numbers about 1.2 million people, or close to […]

A WHITE Zimbabwean farmer was forced to drive a gang of self-styled war veterans to President Robert Mugabe’s official residence in Harare after initially harassing him and accusing him of planting on a section of his farm they are occupying. The militants demanded an audience with Mugabe, saying the government was not supporting them sufficiently […]

PALESTINIAN gunmen opened fire on an Israeli car near the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba in the southern West Bank on Friday, killing a woman and wounding two other Israelis, the army said. A witness who arrived at the scene shortly afterwards told Israeli television that Palestinian gunmen opened fire as their vehicle overtook the […]

THE main opposition candidate in Ghana’s presidential election has taken an early lead, preliminary official results from a handful of constituencies showed on Friday. John Kufuor, running for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), was ahead in all of the seven constituencies, out of 200, for which preliminary results were declared by the Electoral Commission following […]

SOUTH Africa has told UN-sponsored talks that it needs to keep using the lethal chemical DDT to fight a growing threat from the lethal, mosquito-borne disease malaria. The talks are aimed at curbing or eliminating 12 persistent organic pollutants (POPs) including DDT, which has been used since World War II to protect people from malaria. […]

THE United States says Sudan has ordered the expulsion of a US diplomat who met members of the opposition in Khartoum and that Washington was considering a response to this ”unwarranted action.” The incident further threatened the poor relations between the two countries, which were strained by a visit to southern Sudan by a senior […]

TAIWAN President Chen Shui-bian has pardoned 21 convicts, including 19 Jehovah’s Witnesses who were jailed for resisting conscription. The pardon will take effect on Human Rights Day on Sunday. Only six of the 19 are in jail. The others have been released on parole. Jehovah’s Witnesses are barred from conscription, political activities and accepting blood […]