HIV/AIDS infection rates in the small landlocked kingdom of Swaziland have leapt from 3,6% in 1992 to over 31,6%, the country’s national Aids programme has announced. The Swaziland National Aids Programme (SNAP) warned that the figures are, however, probably understated because women are still contracting the fatal pandemic twice as fast as men but are […]

A THIRD radio personality has received his marching orders from the Department of Home Affairs after being found to have forged South African identity documents. Zimbabwean Tonderayi Nokutenda Katsande, popularly known as Tee Kay, a former presenter at Radio Metro and Channel O, has until Friday to leave South Africa. Last week Katsande’s former colleague […]

TWENTY-FIVE people have died and 40 others were injured when an unidentified armed group attacked a diamond field in Cambulo, Angola, the Roman Catholic radio network Ecclesia has reported. Ecclesia blamed the attack on the rebel Unita, which relies on diamonds to fund its war against the government. The victims are thought to include expatriates […]

UGANDAN officials have sighted debris believed to come from a German plane which plunged into Lake Victoria, leaving five people feared dead, the national Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said. The light aircraft, flying from Kilimanjaro airport near the Tanzanian town of Arusha, went into the lake on Monday night a kilometre from Entebbe airport. – […]

SOUTH Africa and Belarus have signed a trade and economic cooperation agreement on the first day of a visit by a Belarussian delegation headed by Foreign Minister Ural Latypov. SA Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin said it sets the basic starting point for a trading relationship which “we hope will lead to much more […]

CLETUS AKWAYA, Abuja | Wednesday AN army officer has told a Nigerian human rights inquiry commission how he was chained, hands and legs, for a full year by agents of late dictator Sani Abacha on false charges. The packed hearing fell silent, except for observers sobbing quietly, as Captain Sadiq Usman Suleiman testified on his […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday THE family of the the first Umkhonto weSizwe cadre to be executed by the apartheid state, Solomon Mahlangu, says a ”very watered down version” of his torture should disqualify a former Security Branch policeman’s amnesty application. Applicant Andries van Heerden said in his application that he ”hit Mahlangu through the […]

DARREN SCHUETTLER, Johannesburg | Wednesday SOUTH African gold giants AngloGold Ltd and Gold Fields Ltd are expected to report flat to stronger results for the September quarter, analysts said this week. AngloGold is expected to report headline earnings per share of between 400 cents and 465 cents when the company delivers its results for the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENTS, Abidjan | Wednesday IVORY Coast military ruler General Robert Guei has plunged his country into chaos, declaring a state of emergency and dissolving the national electoral commission as he unilaterally claimed victory in the country’s presidential elections. Violence erupted in Abidjan after Guei and his main political opponent Laurent Gbagbo both declared themselves […]

SCANDAL-HIT Mitsubishi Motors Corp (MMC) is to transfer its production and sales of Mitsubishi cars and light trucks from Ford Motor Company to DaimlerChrysler South Africa (DCSA), the Japanese firm said in a statement. The agreement comes a week after DaimlerChrysler completed a $1.9bn transaction to take a 34% stake in MMC. The price was […]