NIGERIAN President Olusegun Obasanjo has pledged to speed up the workings of the justice system to reduce the number of remand prisoners in Nigeria. The president, who was jailed for more than three years under the regime of late dictator Sani Abacha, said the government would build new prison buildings and separate convicts from prisoners […]

THE Nigerian government will this week unveil evidence of “massive criminal sabotage” of electricity installations around the country, officials said. President Olusegun Obasanjo is reported to be furious over the continuing dire performance of the state-run electricity company NEPA whose output recently fell to around 1500 megawatts from around 2 000 megawatts after a series […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Tuesday LAWYERS for African National Congress chief whip Tony Yengeni have threatened to launch a defamation case unless the Sunday Times newspaper retracts a weekend report which suggested that he attempted to squash a probe into South Africa’s R43bn arms deal. Yengeni’s legal representative, Mallinicks Attorneys, said in a statement: “The […]

GUINEA-BISSAU authorities have arrested almost 200 army officers and politicians, along with separatist fighters from neighbouring Senegal, whom they accuse of working with fugitive General Ansumane Mane in a foiled coup bid. A source said those detained included 73 officers and top politicians “very close” to Mane, a former military ruler who has been on […]

LIBYAN leader Muammar Gaddafi fears that the long stalemate over who won the US presidential elections will spark a civil war in the United States, the official JANA news agency said. Gaddafi proposed a solution in which Democrat Al Gore and Republican George Bush share power, with the loser becoming vice president. The United States, […]

A LESOTHO court martial has convicted 33 soldiers of mutiny for their part in a 1998 uprising put down by South African and Botswanan troops. They face the possibility of execution. Four others were acquitted for lack of evidence, but two of them were rearrested on charges of arson. – AFP

OVER 55 000 adults and children are suffering from malnutrition in Madagascar after disastrous weather destroyed this year’s crops, the World Food Programme (WFP) said. The affected zone, a 150km strip along the eastern-central coast of the island, is one of the richest areas, producing enough rice, coffee, cloves and lychees for some to be […]

HEALTH Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang will this week sign an agreement with the pharmaceutical company Pfizer on the supply of Fluconazole, a drug used to treat HIV/Aids patients suffering from opportunistic infections. The details of the agreement will be announced during the official signing of the agreement on World Aids Day on December 1, according to […]

A CAMEROONIAN presidential helicopter with at least four people aboard was shot down in Chad last month in what appeared to be a deliberate attack, the Cameroonian press has reported, citing unnamed military sources. The US-made Bell helicopter was downed on October 18, the day presidents Paul Biya of Cameroon and Idriss Deby of Chad […]

THE Constitutional Court has declared Judge Willem Heath’s heading of the Special Investigative Unit of the Heath commission as inconsistent with the constitution. Heath’s SIU, established during former president Nelson Mandela’s tenure, was initially asked to investigate government corruption in the Eastern Cape. Mandela extended the unit’s mandate to encompass the whole country. In July, […]