ALAN RAYBOULD, Abidjan | Monday SUPPORTERS of Socialist Laurent Gbagbo are increasingly confident that he has won Ivory Coast’s presidential election, seeing off army ruler General Robert Guei to end 10 months of military rule. Gbagbo, of the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), and Guei were the only serious runners in a field of five after […]

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 […]

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, Johannesburg | Sunday THOUSANDS of South African Communist Party (SACP) supporters have taken to the streets of South Africa’s major cities to demand easier access to bank loans for the country’s poor as part of its Red October campaign – and are threatening more action should the banks refuse. In Johannesburg some 5000 […]

Malawi police authorities have charged seven prison officiers with murder in the July death of an inmate. A police probe found the seven officers were liable for the death of businessman Kwacha Ghambi, who was murdered in a notorious prison in Zomba, the former colonial-style capital city. The victim was serving a three-year sentence for […]

SOUTH African police are seeking the masterminds behind a heist of 30 tonnes of unrefined platinum worth millions of rands after nine men were caught packing the granular platinum into maize meal bags on Johannesburg’s East Rand. The truck transporting the metal was hijacked during the week. Police found the truck using a satellite tracking […]

A NIGERIAN couple who smuggled two young Nigerian girls into the United States and held them in involuntary servitude in their home in the Bronx, New York has been sentenced to more than 10 years in prison. Prosper Emeka Udogwu and his wife, Ifeoma Ezeonu Udogwu, had been sentenced to 11 years and three months […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Saturday A ZIMBABWEAN game park which is internationally known for its advanced techniques in training and domesticating African elephant has been listed for seizure in the latest round of land grabs by President Robert Mugabe’s government. The Imire game park, in the Wedza area 100km east of Harare, also has a […]

A SOUTH African diamond miner has committed suicide by putting a stick of dynamite in his mouth and lighting it with a match. Police said Mogakalodi Thetswe, 30, killed himself in his bedroom at his parents’ house in Ganyesa in the North West province. The family thought they heard a gunshot and rushed to the […]