THE Nigerian government has agreed to sell the country’s only naval training vessel, the MV Trainer, which has fallen into disrepair, Information Minister Jerry Gana said. The government decision follows the recommendation of a committee set up by ministry of transport, he said. The naval ship was originally sold off in 1979 for $785000 to […]

THE Nigerian government has approved a $10bn development plan for the state-run telecoms company NITEL, casting doubt on its place in the country’s slow moving privatisation programme. Communications Minister Mohammed Arzika said NITEL would be asked to provide 625.9bn naira over four years in internally-generated revenue for investment and find an additional 500bn naira from […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Thursday ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe spent more than US $500000 (R3,5m) of his struggling country’s cash by taking a delegation of 47, including his wife and three children, on a trip to the United Nations Millennium Summit in New York earlier this month, according to reports. Quoting from official correspondence the […]

STEVEN MANN AND REUTERS, Cape Town | Thursday DOES President Thabo Mbeki believe that HIV causes Aids? Quizzed about the issue for the umpteenth time in Parliament, Mbeki has again resorted to verbal gymnastics to avoid giving a definitive answer to the question. “The programme of the government in this country is based on the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday GOVERNMENT has created three home-grown mutant superheroes as the stars of a campaign to raise awareness of the effects of alien vegetation, which drain billions of litres of water from South Africa’s reserves each year. Bionic Bug, Mechanical Man and Chemical Can will be the heroes of AlienBuster Week, which […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT AND REUTERS, Cape Town | Thursday DEFENCE Minister Mosiuoa Lekota is to forward Auditor-General Shauket Fakie’s special report on South Africa’s controversial R30-billion arms deal to Cabinet for further action after Fakie recommended a probe into alleged irregularities in the deal. Lekota gave no indication whether he would personally support Fakie’s recommendation that […]

PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki has told parliament there is no need to put pressure on Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe over the seizure of white-owned farms, saying illegal land seizures should not be tolerated, but the redistribution of land left in white hands as a legacy of colonialism had to be addressed urgently. Mbeki repeated that if […]

A UNIT of South African natural resources giant Anglo American Plc says its Zambia mining operations will break even by the end of the year despite current losses. Anglo’s Zambia Copper Investments (ZCI) is the majority shareholder in Konkola Copper Mines Plc (KCM), which bought Zambia’s Nchanga and Konkola copper mines and the Nampundwe pyrite […]

A SUMMIT aimed at consolidating a fragile peace deal in Burundi has ended in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi with no ceasefire accord but an appeal by mediators for all sides to cease hostilities. Although mediator Nelson Mandela had persuaded most of Burundi’s political parties to sign a peace deal last month, the two main […]

A MICHIGAN, US judge has terminated the parental rights of a Cameroon couple whose plan to get their daughter an American education ended with her becoming a virtual slave. The couple, Fru David Forya and Fru Justina Damasang, sent one of their six children from their home in Bemenda, Cameroon, to live with Joseph and […]