A MOVE to ban women from working in gas stations and restaurants in the state of Khartoum was ”not considered beforehand,” the Sudanese justice minister said. However, he would not call the move unconstitutional, and warned that laws not in line Islamic Sharia law were being revised. – Reuters

ZIMBABWE Platinum Mines Ltd (Zimplats) said this week that a new fiscal regime for the mining industry was among key requirements for the company to proceed with a promising platinum mining project. Zimplats is 51% owned by Australia’s Delta Gold. The company acquired the Zimbabwean platinum operations of Australia’s BHP Ltd in 1999 after BHP […]

A STEAMY sex session between two goats led to the temporary closure of a high school in northern Swaziland last week. The amorous twosome disrupted classes at Timphisini Central High School after running into a Grade 8 classroom to engage in frenetic sex as bemused pupils watched. As the classroom erupted into catcalls and applause […]

PETER CUNLIFFE-JONES, Abuja | Monday THE Nigerian equivalent of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission this week launches 12 weeks of public hearings probing human rights abuses in Nigeria dating back to the first military coup in 1966. The commission, which was set up last year, has received over 10000 complaints of rights violations. Around […]

SCIENTISTS have successfully tested a natural insecticide against grasshoppers and locusts in Niger. The non-chemical insecticide, called Green Muscle, has no secondary effect on humans or animals, and kills only locusts and grasshoppers – longtime pests for farmers in Africa and elsewhere. It can be applied just once a season, and costs only one third […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday SOUTH Africa’s opposition Democratic Alliance has kicked off its campaign for the December local elections with a promise to provide free anti-Aids drugs in wards its members win. DA leader Tony Leon told a 500-strong crowd in Soweto, south of Johannesburg, the party would give anti-retrovirals to HIV-positive pregnant women […]

A FOUR-year-old girl who survived a hand grenade blast in Whittlesea, south of Queenstown, is to be discharged from the Hewu hospital soon. Two cousins, both aged 10, were killed in the explosion. The two boys were visiting their grandparents when they saw the grenade hanging in a neighbour’s tree. The boys boys are believed […]

AUSTRALIA’S Aquarius Platinum is to proceed with an offer to acquire South Africa’s Kroondal Platinum following a revision of the exchange ratio originally offered. ”Accordingly, a re-assessment of the exchange ratio has resulted in a revised offer of 1.2 Aquarius ordinary shares for every one KPM ordinary share,” the companies said in a joint statement. […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Monday DISGRACED former anti-apartheid activist Dr Alan Boesak, jailed earlier this year for squirrelling away R1.3m of donor funds, could be out on parole by next June following a Correction Services Department decision to slash ten months off his sentence. Boesak started his 3-year sentence on May 15 this year […]