JAN RAATH, Harare | Wednesday ZIMBABWE’S Supreme Court on Tuesday declared the government’s controversial land-grabs to be legal, but the sole independent judge on the bench condemned the ruling and said the court should be ”abolished”. Farm union officials immediately advised farmers under pressure from state-backed squatters to abandon their hopes of winning protection from […]

A POST-mortem would be performed on Wednesday morning to determine the cause of Marike de Klerk’s death. The former wife of former South African president FW de Klerk was found dead in her house in Dolphin Beach, Blaauwberg, on the Cape West Coast around 4pm on Tuesday. Her hairdresser, with whom she had an appointment, […]

ORBITING between the Earth and the Sun, the Genesis spacecraft has begun collecting particles of solar wind in its giant collector arrays, the US space agency NASA said Monday. ”We expect to start getting particle hits right away. Now we’ve gotten to the real focus of the mission: the start of science,” said Donald Burnett […]

AT least 50 people have died and some 150 were injured in ethnic clashes over the weekend in Ghana’s northeastern region of Bawku, police said on Tuesday. ”A minimum of 50 people have died and at least 150 were injured in the violence which broke out over the weekend,” said a police official, speaking from […]

Gaborone | Monday A PACT to curb the trade in “blood diamonds” has been reached with agreement on international certification for rough diamond exports and imports, officials said as talks wound up in Botswana. “Blood diamonds” or “conflict diamonds” are defined as rough diamonds which are used by rebel movements to finance their activities, or […]

Cape Town | Tuesday FORMER South African president Nelson Mandela warned here on Monday that it would be “a disaster” for the United States and Britain to extend the war on terrorism to bombing Iraq. “I think that would be a disaster,” Mandela told reporters when asked if he would support such a step. The […]

Harare | Tuesday ZIMBABWE’S state-owned press rounded on Monday on neighbouring South Africa, accusing President Thabo Mbeki of “betrayal” for reported criticism of President Robert Mugabe’s government and policies. In a strongly worded editorial, the government daily the Herald said that the country felt betrayed that Mbeki had joined “the fight against Zimbabwe” alongside “architects […]

Johannesburg | Tuesday THE Treatment Action Campaign has reacted angrily to Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’s claim that the debate on anti-retroviral Aids drugs is misplaced. ”A discussion of anti-retrovirals in a country with 200 000 people dying a year is hardly misplaced unless you attach no worth to those lives,” TAC national secretary Mark Heywood […]

Johannesburg | Tuesday SCORES of people including Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang gathered outside the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday to protest against the rape and abuse of children. Two men will appear in the court later in the day in connection with the rape of a five-month-old baby girl in Joubert Park in the city’s […]