THE Nigerian government is planning to set up a trust fund to use unclaimed share dividends to help develop small and medium-sized enterprises. Following a practice adopted in Britain and the United States and other countries, dividends unclaimed for a number of years will revert to the treasury. It is estimated that some two billion […]

THE numbers of certain wildlife species in tourist-popular northwestern Botswana are dropping because animals are being trapped in fences erected to control disease. The decline in animal numbers could threaten tourism in the area, said a report. Attacks by carnivorous animals on herbivores trapped against the fences, as well as poaching, are among other factors […]

JOHN GROBLER, Rundu | Tuesday NAMIBIAN and Angolan security forces are carrying out illegal detentions and torturing prisoners in round-ups along their joint Kavango River border designed to crack down on Angolan rebels, local sources and human rights activists say. Namibian police refuse to confirm or deny the existence of Operation Eagle, and insist that […]

OWN CORRESPONDENTS, Cape Town | Tuesday THE African National Congress has accused the Democratic Alliance-led Western Cape government of using black Aids victims as guinea pigs by giving them “dangerous and toxic drugs” reminiscent of the biological warfare of the apartheid era. Saying the ANC’s propaganda machine had “seriously lost the plot”, the alliance hit […]

A NORTHERN Province welder who allegedly tried to slice his wife’s throat with an angle-grinder has been remanded in custody after failing to make bail. Samuel Munaka, 34, allegedly attacked his wife with an angle-grinder when he suspected she was cheating on him. – African Eye News Service

SEVERAL people were injured when Swaziland’s armed forces broke up anti-government protests in the capital, Mbabane, and in the industrial city of Manzini. Eyewitnesses said police and army officers disrupted a march on the king’s palace outside the capital led by the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) with teargas and batons. – African Eye […]

ETHIOPIA and Eritrea’s foreign ministers have begun talks in the Algerian capital aimed at turning June ceasefire halting a two-year border war into a lasting peace agreement. Tens of thousands of people, most of them soldiers from both sides, were been killed in the war, which has displaced more than 1.2 million people. – AFP

BRITISH business has won new powers to snoop on staff e-mails and telephone calls under a controversial law that will be closely watched overseas. The new law, which could develop into a protracted battle, gives bosses wide monitoring powers. The crux of the issue is whether workers have the right to expect privacy in the […]

SOUTH African information technology firm Datatec is reviewing the timing of the London listing of its Logical Holdings unit because of global volatility in new economy stocks. Datatec Marketing Director Johnathan Newman said Internet services group Logical would clarify its listing intentions when it presented its interim results on November 7. He reaffirmed that Datatec […]

A 267-carat diamond, whose owner was imprisoned for several weeks on suspicion that he had stolen it from the state, has been sold for $17.9m in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The owner, Alphonse Ngoyi Kasanji, said the diamond was sold to a German company. – Reuters