FRANCE Telecom is in talks with Motorola Inc to buy the US firm’s stake in mobile phone operator Egyptian Company for Mobile Services (MobiNil), a source said. MobiNil is one of two current mobile operators in Egypt. Motorola holds an 18% stake in MobiNil, while France Telecom holds 23.5% and regional mobile phone operator Orascom […]

THE Nigerian government has begun talks with oil industry monitors to avert a planned strike by the workers over pay, industry officials said. The white-collar PENGASSAN oil workers union of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) last week gave the government until September 29 to effect the payment of a 10% increase in salary and […]

ZAMBIA’S ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy won all eight parliamentary by-elections contested this week, electoral officials said. The by-elections were called after the expulsion of former environment minister Ben Mwila and his supporters from the MMD two months ago after Mwila said that he would be a candidate in next year’s presidential election. Neither Mwila […]

A 20-YEAR-old man has been was arrested for murdering his mother, their gardener and the family’s poodles with a garden fork. Johannesburg police said the dogs appeared to have been killed first and left in the garden. The 60-year-old gardener was then killed in the garage, and neighbours watched helplessly as the mother was attacked […]

AFP, New York | Wednesday THE UN refugee agency has been slated for failing to do enough for victims in refugee camps after investigations by a human rights organisation revealed rampant sexual and domestic brutality against Burundian women in camps in Tanzania. “Widespread sexual and domestic abuse have left many of these women physically battered, […]

THE Sandton woman who drugged her two sons before setting their home alight has walked free after a court found she was psychotic when the crime was committed and could not appreciate the wrongfulness of her act. Dr Manuela Costa was found “not guilty due to mental illness” after she set alight her Morningside Manor […]

JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Nelspruit | Wednesday A MAN found by a commission to have tried to derail internal probes into licence fraud irregularities in 1997, being unable to control his staff, attempting to cover up for their inadequacies by doing their work, and not having managerial ability has been appointed to the most powerful administrative position […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday VICTIMS of the March floods in Alexandra, Johannesburg have been barred from moving into temporary housing on eight hectares of land adjoining the Leeuwkop Prison after a successful court injunction by residents in the area. The Pretoria High Court blocked the flood victims from moving into the houses until an […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT and REUTERS, Johannesburg | Tuesday SOUTH Africa, the world’s biggest gold producing country for the past century, faces the prospect of losing its No 1 status by the end of the decade – and a new report suggests that only two of the country’s ageing gold mines will survive beyond 2025. The Department […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday VODACOM, the cellular phone network operator, is expected to retrench staff at one of its subsidiaries because of financial losses resulting from “duplication of duties,” a Johannesburg daily newspaper has reported. Business Report said that confidential company documents indicated the imminent restructuring and looming job losses had been triggered by […]