SOUTH African authorities have confiscated about R1bn worth of hashish destined for Montreal in the country’s biggest drug bust, police said this week. Acting on a tip-off, police and customs and harbour officials at Durban intercepted a container and recovered 11.5 tonnes of compressed hashish in packets labelled “milk” and hidden under linen in the […]

AFP and OWN CORRESPONDENT, Ivory Coast | Thursday IVORY Coast socialist leader Laurent Gbagbo, who has claimed power after junta leader Robert Guei fled the country, faces immediate calls for a new election from rival candidates barred from the ballot papers. While the official results from Sunday’s presidential race have yet to be announced, Gbagbo […]

ONE in every hundred pregnant women in Angola dies each year following complications linked to pregnancy and birth, according to a report. Many of them die after undergoing abortions in poor hygiene conditions and after suffering haemorrhages, said medical expert Adelaide Carvalho, who has carried out research in Angolan hospitals and medical centres. Only 50% […]

AN alleged rapist has escaped arrest after trapping two policemen in a shack and opening a box of bees, police said. The policemen were inside the shack at the Duduza informal settlement near Nigel when the suspect closed the door and opened the box of bees. A 26-year-old alleged rape victim and her daughter were […]

CRAIG BISHOP, Ncome | Thursday THE national deputy director general of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology, Professor Musa Xulu, has been charged with misconduct and suspended following a forensic audit into tender processes totalling R2m. Director general Dr Rob Adam said the contracts were awarded by the former National Monuments Council, now the SA Heritage […]

THE outbreak of deadly Ebola, which has claimed 64 lives in northern Uganda should be over within six weeks, an expert with the World Health Organisation (WHO) said this week – but a communicable diseases expert who is just back from northern Uganda said a close eye would then need to be kept on the […]

SUSPENDED Mpumalanga Parks Board (MPB) chief Alan Gray has won yet another reprieve when a disciplinary hearing scheduled for this week was postponed to November 1. Gray was suspended in September 1998 for his role in the illegal use of 31 game reserves as collateral for a series of dodgy promissory notes worth over R1,3bn. […]

EMMANUAL GIROUD, Dar Es Salaam | Thursday A DECADE of liberalisation has earned Tanzania, which goes to the polls this weekend, a reputation as a star pupil of the International Monetary Fund, yet its people remain among the poorest in the world. Annual per capita income hovers between $200 and $250. More than half the […]

LABOUR federation Cosatu is concerned that simmering tension in Swaziland could spark a refugee crisis for the southern African region. It plans to hold a three-day meeting next month with its Swazi counterparts to draw up a programme of action to demand reforms in the landlocked kingdom. Swaziland has recently been hit by a series […]

SA financial services group Decillion Ltd has opened a grain trading and hedging business to serve millers and other end users of grain. The initiative will be driven by Decillion Agri Services (DAS), which has been servicing the financial risk management needs of the agricultural sector since May 1999. ”Several of the smaller cooperatives have […]