THE Senegal government has ordered the local Coca Cola affiliate to halt production of Coca Cola and Sprite after a consumer protection organisation complained that “slimy substances” had been discovered in several one-litre bottles, the BBC reported. The ban came in response to a growing public outcry which has prompted the government to conduct immediate […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Bloemfontein | Thursday CAPE Town is fast becoming the leading child sex tourism destination of the world, where regular sex tours are organised in much the same fashion as wine route tours, according to one of South Africa’s top welfare officials. Law enforcement officials are fully aware of the trend, but are either […]

KENYAN women soldiers will be allowed to marry following sweeping new changes introduced by the country’s Defence Council aimed at restructuring the armed services. Female soldiers will be free to marry either civilians or soldiers, following the integration of the former Women Service Corp into other sectors of the armed forces. However, there are limitations: […]

A NEW bill has been tabled in Parliament that will write off the R4.1bn debt incurred by the former homelands and possibly bury forever unanswered questions on unauthorised spending. The Finance Bill which was approved by the finance portfolio committee, will allow the former homelands to start will a clean slate. The Treasury said that […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Dar Es Salaam | Thursday SMALL-scale gold miners in the Geita district, in northern Tanzania are seeking compensation from Ashanti Goldfields after claiming that they were forcibly evicted from their mines. Local miners in the region are said to have written a letter to the president describing how the Geita district commissioner with […]

OWN CORRESPONDENTs, Pretoria | Thursday AFRIKANER Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) leader Eugene Terre’Blanche has walked out of the Pretoria High Court a “free” man after being released on bail, saying “justice has prevailed” and determined to see that his maize crop is harvested. His release followed a decision by the Department of Correctional Services to release him […]

REUTERS, Abidjan | Thursday THE central bank that serves all the francophone West African countries, the BCEAO, has tightened the minimum reserve requirements for banks in some of the zone’s countries, but not in the area’s biggest economy, Ivory Coast. Previously, minimum obligatory reserves of 3% were required of banks in all eight countries of […]

RESCUE workers have recovered the bodies of all 143 passengers and crew from the Gulf Air plane which crashed into the Gulf off Bahrain last night, a Bahraini civil defence official said. The Gulf Air Airbus A320, on a flight from Cairo, crashed into shallow waters off the Gulf with an engine on fire as […]

AVIS Southern Africa Ltd, the South African-based auto rental group, has completed its takeover bid of Avis businesses in Norway and Sweden. Avis, which has other numerous offshore operations, said it had also appointed Pat O’Brien as its Oslo-based chief executive of the two Scandinavian units, while current chief executive Paul Ramm would take over […]

TRANSPORT group Roadcorp Ltd said it had asked the Johannesburg bourse to suspend trade in its shares after its bankers, Nedbank, demanded payment it owes them. ”The directors of Roadcorp have received a written confirmation from its main commercial bankers, Nedbank, in terms of which Nedbank withdraws its support of Roadcorp and the Roadcorp subsidiaries […]