REUTERS, Paris | Tuesday GROUPS of Ivory Coast soldiers have been summarily killing unarmed suspected criminals and mistreating lawyers and journalists since the military coup last Christmas Eve, the human rights group Amnesty International has reported. It said some suspects had been made to kneel naked before being shot in front of a crowd. Relatives […]

ZIMBABWE police have expelled hundreds of squatters occupying five white-owned farms and destroyed some of their makeshift huts, notably near Harare. Apart from a few brief scuffles with squatters on one of the farms, the expulsion operation was uneventful. Chenjerai Hitler Hunzvi, leader of Zimbabwe’s war veterans who have led a campaign to occupy white […]

THOUSANDS of civilians have been trapped by a relentless Philippine military assault on Muslim rebel hostage takers on Jolo island in the southern Philippines. Food and water are scarce and the wounded cannot be taken to hospital because of a military cordon around the area of operations. An American being held by Muslim kidnappers has […]

WORK has started on a $10m project to clear earth blocking the flow of the River Nile, using machinery supplied by the Egyptian government. Workers started removing the mass of earth blocking the middle of the river’s main stream, said an Egyptian irrigation mission official. The Nile is the main source of water for agriculture […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday AS South Africa’s roads continue to crumble, the National Roads Agency is to investigate the building of 18 new toll routes which could see up to 3500km of roads fall under private management in the next five years. According to a report in the Business Day newspaper, the road network […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Monday DEFENCE Minister Mosiuoa Lekota and defence force chief General Siphiwe Nyanda have confirmed that the government is considering reintroducing some form of conscription. Speaking at a briefing for media and diplomats at Parliament, they said current members of the South African National Defence Force were not “getting any younger”, […]

KHANYISILE MAEPA, Mbabane | Monday THE shift by SABC television from analogue to digital broadcasting has left thousands of Swazis cut off from their favorite channels – and reinforced calls for media diversity in the tiny kingdom. The South African broadcaster switched off its SABC 3 analogue service on September 11, and will cut off […]

A TOGOLESE employee of the UN refugee agency has been killed in a rebel attack on the south-eastern Guinean town of Macenta, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva said. UN staff discovered the body of their colleague, who had apparently been killed by his attackers as they retreated. An Ivorian UN employee […]

THE release of some 18 000 prisoners from South Africa’s overcrowded jails has run into fresh criticism after weekend reports that one man accused of car theft pointed a pistol at a woman’s head and stole her car less than 24 hours after being released. The release last week, mostly of suspects awaiting trial who […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kampala | Monday A SPECIAL committee appointed to investigate the farms crisis in Mpumalanga has painted a picture of dirt-poor farm workers being beaten up by vigilantes, while farmers live in fear and carry guns on their hips. In its report to the provincial legislature, committee chair Victor Windvoel said farm workers were […]