ETHIOPIA’S late Emperor Haile Selassie will be reburied on November 5 in a ceremony aimed at restoring the dignity of a monarch who died in murky circumstances 25 years ago. The body of the aged emperor, who was deposed by military officers in 1974 and was either murdered or simply allowed to die of neglect […]

MOROCCO has put a 35% stake in state-run Maroc Telecom (MT) up for sale in its largest privatisation operation to date in a bid to speed up the liberalisation of the telecommunications industry The government plans to keep a 51% stake in MT and will float the remaining 14% on local and foreign stock markets. […]

NIGERIA’S second stock exchange market has been switched on in Abuja for a trial run, but no company was listed at its inauguration. The automated globalised trading system was used for mock trading in shares. Nigeria already has one stock exchange in Lagos, the country’s economic capital. It is hoped that the Abuja stock exchange […]

MANOAH ESIPISU AND OWN CORRESPONDENT, Lusaka | Wednesday ZAMBIAN Finance Minister Katele Kalumba is optimistic that Zambia will win debt relief next month under an initiative spearheaded by the IMF and the World Bank – but if it fails to do so, it faces a potentially crippling $440m debt servicing bill in the next year […]

SILVIA ALOISI, Abidjan | Wednesday IVORY Coast’s ruling junta has arrested several people – including two French nationals – close to presidential hopeful Alassane Ouattara, accusing them of plotting to sow disorder ahead of a presidential election. A junta official accused the Ouattara camp of recruiting people to ”carry out sabotage to prevent the election […]

A CANADIAN-based company that has been exploring for oil near Lake Albert in western Uganda plans to start drilling in February. Heritage Oil & Gas (Uganda) Ltd said its four-year investigation, including a seismic study of the Semiliki basin, 265km west of the capital Kampala, had indicated there were significant oil deposits of between 700m […]

JEREMY LOVELL, Cape Town | Wednesday SOUTH Africa, at the heart of the global HIV/Aids epidemic, will begin clinical trials of a vaccine to combat the deadly disease within months, says the Medical Research Council. The Council’s Michelle Galloway said the phase one clinical trials would involve a handful of people who would be monitored […]

REUTERS, Cape Town | Wednesday RAPE in South Africa is massively under-reported, according to the annual report of the country’s Medical Research Council, with victimisation by the rapist or his friends and the likelihood of dismissive treatment by the police playing a major role. ”We found 1 _300 completed rapes per 100 000 women in […]

REUTERS, Kinshasa | Tuesday UN HUMAN rights chief Mary Robinson has blamed both the government and rebel groups for what she calls “widespread human rights violations” in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “Unfortunately, I have taken note that at this moment, men and women are pursued and detained for having expressed their opinions,” Robinson […]