THE ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party has taken a narrow early lead in Zanzibar’s elections according to results announced on Tanzanian state radio. The radio said CCM had won eight of 15 constituencies counted so far – including one on the opposition stronghold of Pemba island. The opposition Civic United Front (CUF) had won […]

Own Correspondent, Johannesburg | Saturday SOUTH African telecommunications regulator Icasa has blocked mobile phone operators MTN and Vodacom’s bid for access to a higher capacity, better quality 1800 MHz GSM frequency after public hearings raised competition concerns. ”Spectrum is a scarce national resource…It is the responsibility of all governments and regulators to ensure that all […]

SOUTH African poultry producer Rainbow Chicken Ltd’s restructuring and cost-cutting drive is beginning to pay off, with the company reporting a turnaround in earnings in the first half, posting a profit of R2.29m after a loss of R40.72m in the same period last year. Rainbow expects full year profits to be higher than those posted […]

PIRATES armed with machineguns have attacked a cargo ship off the coast of Sierra Leone, plundering the captain’s safe and robbing the Ukrainian crew of their belongings, Danish national radio news reported. None of the 14-man crew was hurt in the night attack. Robberies are common in the West African country, where UN peacekeeping soldiers […]

DURBAN police have arrested two Johannesburg businessmen in connection with a consignment of 11,5 tons of hashish with a potential street value of more than R1bn, which was intercepted in October. The men, aged 33 and 24, were arrested after the discovery of the hashish in a container at Durban harbour on October 21. The […]

EGYPT’S constitutional court has ruled as unconstitutional the laws stating that a woman can only get a passport with permission from her husband. The court also ruled unconstitutional laws allowing the interior and foreign ministries to look into the allocation of individual passports, saying “the rule is to issue (a passport) in line with the […]

SOUTH Africa’s elite Scorpions police unit has served subpoenas on the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) and Reuters news agency to obtain raw video footage on the murder of alleged gangster Rashied Staggie. National directorate for public prosecutions spokesman Sipho Ngwema said when the directorate raided the offices of the state-run SABC, Reuters and Associated […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, East London | Sunday AFRICAN National Congress heavyweights, including Deputy President Jacob Zuma, turned the funeral of presidential aide Parks Mankahlana’s into a giant ANC local elections rally, lambasting those who had defected from the ANC or become independents. In front of thousands of mourners at the Sisa Dukashe stadium in Mdantsane, Zuma […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Durban | Sunday THE success rate of arresting, prosecuting and convicting criminals in South Africa is not good enough to deter these criminals from making a life out of crime, says KwaZulu-Natal premier Lionel Mtshali. Speaking at the opening of the new C-max prison, Qalakabusha, at Empangeni, in northern KwaZulu-Natal, Mtshali said in […]

LIBYAN leader Muammar Gaddafi has called for Muslim pilgrims to Mecca to “march on al-Quds,” the Arabic name for Jerusalem. “There should be one million or two million pilgrims at Mecca. They must march on al-Quds,” Kadhafi said in an interview with the satellite channel Middle East Broadcasting Corporation (MBC). “Instead of walking around the […]