A NORTHWEST couple convicted of abusing and prostituting their three daughters for as little as R5 over a five-year period will be sentenced in the Pretoria Regional Court on October 30. The 41-year-old woman and the girls’ 31-year-old stepfather were convicted in August of abusing the 19-year-old and 16-year-old daughters, and of being party to […]

NIGERIAN authorities have ordered troops onto the streets of Lagos to restore order after three days of ethnic violence left more than 100 dead. Thousands of terrified residents sought protection in police and army barracks as Yoruba youths hunted down Hausa rivals in the worst ethnic violence to shake the city in almost a year. […]

REUTERS AND OWN CORRESPONDENT, Abuja | Wednesday NIGERIAN President Olusegun Obasanjo has pledged his government’s support to improve business confidence in the oil-producing country at the urging of industry leaders. “We have to improve confidence. I agree absolutely with that,” Obasanjo told the concluding session of this year’s Nigerian Economic Summit. Nigeria’s industry leaders and […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Wednessday A SOUTH African group of grappa distillers is spearheading an alliance to strike back at the European Union’s (EU) move to secure Italy’s position as the world’s only producer of “real” grappa. The SA Grappa and Distillation Association, which represents three distillers, wants all producers outside the EU to […]

A MONTH of Egyptian legislative elections has started without the participation of what political observers call the country’s largest opposition force – the Muslim Brotherhood. Egypt’s Islamists, who are prevented by law from evoking religion in their politics, have accused the government of “rigging the elections in advance” by arresting members of the banned Brotherhood, […]

THE World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are to back a debt relief package for the west African state of Cameroon worth a total of $2bn. The agreement makes Cameroon immediately eligible for an annual $100m in debt relief over the next three years, freeing up money that can be allocated to health care, […]

AFP and OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Wednesday A BOMB exploded on Wednesday outside a restaurant in Cape Town’s Kenilworth suburb, just south of the city centre, injuring four people, police and rescue sources said. The bomb exploded around 9:00am in front of the Something Fishy eatery, which was not open for business, on the […]

ANGOLA’S lawmakers have extended their own mandate for the third time because of the ongoing civil war, the deputy speaker of parliament Juliao Paulo Mateus said. While the constitution gives lawmakers a four-year term, the parliament formed after elections in 1992 have twice extended their mandates. Mateus did not say how long the new mandate […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Wednesday AN enraged Nehawu, South Africa’s largest public sector union, has appealed to politicians to reject ”morally unacceptable” wage increases of between 5% and 15.5% the day after it averted a national strike by its 240000 members by entering into a new salary agreement with the government. The National Education, […]

SOUTH Africa’s Sasol has signed final agreements with US oil company Chevron Corp to set up a new company to deal with global gas-to-liquids (GTL) ventures. The joint venture intends to use GTL ventures worldwide with investments planned in excess of $5bn over the next five to 10 years, Sasol said in a statement. GTL […]