FOUR children have been eaten by leopards in eastern Ethiopia, police said. The children were sleeping inside their houses in the Harari region when the leopards attacked them, national ENA news agency said, citing the police. People in the region have appealed for help from the authorities to deal with leopard “invasions,” ENA said. – […]

THE National African Chamber of Commerce (Nafcoc) and the South African Chamber of Commerce (Sacob) have announced their amalgamation to form a new company (Newco). Newco said the amalgamation was formalised last week when the governing principles for Newco were drawn up, which would “promote and practice democracy.” It would also be a non-racial lobbying […]

THE president of Burkina Faso, Blaise Compaore, has formed a new government by decree made up of 36 members, some from four new opposition parties. Three small opposition parties present in the outgoing government of former Prime Minister Kadre Desire Ouedraogo, who resigned last week, have retained their place. At least seven other parties are […]

SIZWE SAMAYENDE, Skukuza | Monday ONE of the largest conservation areas in Africa, a 35000 square kilometer conservation and eco-tourism area spanning the Kruger Park, Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe and a conservation area called Coutada 16 in Mozambique, has started taking shape. Ministers from the three countries at the weekend signed a historic agreement […]

FRANCE Telecom wants to buy US firm Motorola’s shares in Egypt’s biggest mobile phone company, Mobinil, which would make the French company the largest shareholder, a source in Egyptian business circles said this week. Motorola currently holds 18%, France Telecom 23.5%, and Orascom Telecom, belonging to Egyptian businessman Nagib Sawiris 26.1%, with the remainder shared […]

OWN CORRESPONDENTS, Pietermaritzburg | Monday KWAZULU-Natal is staring down the barrel of a potential economic disaster as almost two million hectares of the province were cordoned off over the weekend pending the vaccination of cloven-hoofed animals for foot-and-mouth disease. Just how big the impact could be will be determined this week as teams from the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Monday THE South African public has been “severely traumatised” by viewing television footage of three black illegal immigrants being attacked by police dogs, according to the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation. Speaking on SABC’s Newsmaker programme, the Centre’s Ntsiki Matsilo said some members of the public had […]

CHINESE and Arab oil firms have formed a joint venture to search for petroleum in southeast Sudan, a newspaper reported this week. The Chinese National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), Gulf Oil of Qatar, and a United Arab Emirates firm formed a consortium with Sudan’s state-run Sudapet in a deal signed at the weekend, the As-Sahafi Ad-Dawli […]

AN anti-crime organisation has threatened to sue the South African government for millions of rands for failing to stamp out rampant crime. The South African Fund for Bodily and Mentally Injured Persons for Hijacking (SAFBIP) said it would use the R110m it hopes to win in damages to care for victims of violent crime. The […]