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, […]

A POWERFUL Nigerian trade union said this week it would support deregulation of the country’s fuel market, five months after a general strike over a hike in prices. Joseph Akinlaja, general secretary of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers said he believed deregulation of the controlled fuel market was the only way […]

THE Democratic Republic of Congo has agreed to resume talks on a United Nations observer mission to monitor a ceasefire in the war-torn nation, says South African President Thabo Mbeki. Speaking at the close of a one-day summit in Maputo, Mbeki said the DRC government had agreed to cooperate and resolve outstanding issues which have […]

THE former head of state of the now defunct Venda homeland, General Gabriel Ramushwana, is the African National Congress’ mayoral candidate for Messina in Northern Province. Ramushwana, who is surfacing from six years of political inactivity, forcefully took over the strife-torn homeland government from the late Chief Frank Ravele in the early 90s and restored […]