Staff Reporter

OWN CORRESPONDENTS, Johannesburg | Wednesday THE leader of South Africa’s biggest trade union federation, Cosatu, says the South African government’s policy of “soft diplomacy” towards Zimbabwe has failed. “Just talking softly, saying please to President Robert Mugabe has not helped,” Cosatu (Congress of South African Trade Unions) secretary general Zwelinzima Vavi told the independent eTV […]

AT least 12 African heads of state are expected to attend next week’s summit on the Burundi peace process in Tanzania’s northern town of Arusha. The summit is expected to settle outstanding issues in efforts to bring peace to Burundi after more than seven years of war, including the leadership of a transitional government and […]

A 39-year-old Briton caught last week with a large amount of cannabis and cash in his truck while trying to leave Morocco was sentenced on Monday to two years in prison. Geoffrey Richard Cousins, a farmer living in Yvers, France, was arrested on February 12 in Tangier when a police search of his vehicle turned […]

FORMER Malawian dictator Kamuzu Banda will receive a “decent tomb” on Capital Hill in Lilongwe, according to a presidential statement on Monday announcing a new tomb committee. Banda ruled Malawi with an iron fist for three decades until the nation’s first multi-party elections in 1994. He died three years later. President Bakili Muluzi, who succeeded […]

NIGERIA?S President Olusegun Obasanjo has opened the first pan-African conference on human trafficking with an attack on what he called an ?evil new slave trade that threatens Africa?s women and children?. Most of the victims of the worldwide scourge of human trafficking are Africans and the continent must take an initiative against it, Obasanjo told […]

ANNIE THOMAS, Bamako, Mali | Tuesday THE chiefs of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have held talks with African presidents on development issues, after earlier facing down demonstrators who accused them of fuelling poverty on the continent. During the closed-door meeting both sides exchanged ideas and opinions on how best to eradicate poverty […]

ANGOLAS UNITA rebels attacked a vehicle belonging to the state diamond-mining group Endiama at the weekend, killing three people, the Roman Catholic missionary news agency Misna reported on Monday. The rebels ambushed the vehicle near the town of Nzaji, in the northeastern Lunda Norte province where Endiama has extensive diamond-mining operations, Misna said. Two of […]

THE United Nations is investigating allegations of serious corruption in its Kenya office responsible for resettling refugees, a case that has prompted death threats against some staff. “They are looking into allegations of fraud and wrongdoing, that individuals were paying UNHCR staff, among others, to be resettled,” said Paul Stromberg of the UN High Commissioner […]

MOLTEN lava from east DRC’s Mount Nyamuragira, which erupted February 6, is helping Rwandan troops in the area to dislodge Hutu extremist militias. Kigali has long justified its support of rebels in the DRC with the need to counter the threat posed by extremist groups such as the Interahamwe which helped carry out the 1994 […]

SOUTH African maize futures fell sharply on Monday as rains swept across key grain growing belts, offering hope to despairing farmers, cooperatives said. The weather bureau predicted scattered thundershowers for the maize-growing North West province and heavy falls in the north-east of the Free State province, another key maize producing region. “The crisis we had […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Durban | Tuesday HUNDREDS of subsistence farmers in KwaZulu-Natal have threatened violence and Zimbabwe-style land invasions if they are moved from land near Mandeni they claim as theirs, but whose title is held by descendants of the first white Zulu chief, John Dunn. “If the land affairs minister says the people must be […]

THE Namibian government said on Monday it would provide food relief to more than 21 000 San families living in the country’s northeastern Caprivi region, which has been ravaged by a famine. Emergency Management Unit Deputy Director Gabriel Kangouua said 537 tonnes of food would be distributed from about 160 points in the region in […]

PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni took his re-election campaign to northern Uganda this weekend but seemed to make little impression in an area that has been ravaged by war and is traditionally hostile to him. Several thousand people turned out to see him at a rally in the northern town of Gulu but there was little enthusiasm, […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, San Francisco | Tuesday A WORLDWIDE network of no-fishing zones may be the last, best hope of replenishing the Earth’s depleted stocks of fish and other marine species, an international team of scientists reports. Overfishing, pushed by a hungry world’s demand for seafood, has moved species of fish toward extinction, the researchers say, […]

TWO South African labour department officials have been suspended and face internal charges relating to a factory fire in which 11 workers burnt to death last year. “We have reason to believe there was ineptitude and dereliction of duty,” Labour Department Director General Rams Ramashia said, adding that two senior managers were to be charged. […]

SUBSISTENCE fishing from thousands of dugout canoes along southern African lakes is threatening stocks and the livelihood of communities, a senior Southern African Development Community (SADC) official said. “They are really hammering the resources until they are no longer sustainable,” said Shaibu Mapila, the Malawian co-ordinator of the SADC inland fisheries sector. Mapila was briefing […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, London | Tuesday ZIMBABWES main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, believes a presidential election will be called in his country in August as the government deteriorates into panic. Meanwhile, diplomatic relations between Britain and Zimbabwe deteriorated as the Foreign Office confirmed it had called in the Zimbabwean high commissioner over the expulsion and intimidation […]

A TRUCK driver is expected to appear in the Harding Magistrate’s Court after 17 people were killed when his vehicle collided with a minibus taxi near Ngeli in KwaZulu-Natal at the weekend. The smash occurred on the N2 highway when a truck travelling from Kokstad to Harding apparently overtook a vehicle on a single barrier […]

ANGOLAN paramilitary Civil Defence Force Unit members have allegedly stolen livestock from villagers inside Namibia and sold them for about $10 each. Human rights sources within the Namibian Defence Force said members of the Walvis Bay-based artillery battalion earlier this year robbed Angolan villagers of between 45 and 50 heads of cattle.

President Pierre Buyoya of Burundi has flown to South Africa for a week of talks with peace mediator Nelson Mandela and Vice President Jacob Zuma.

STEVE Tshwete, South Africa’s controversial safety and security minister, has been sworn in as acting president while President Thabo Mbeki visits Saudi Arabia and Deputy President Jacob Zuma visits Swaziland. Tshwete incensed the Portuguese community in South Africa earlier this month by accusing them of disloyalty. He also accused white South African women of being […]

BRAZIL?S flagship carrier Varig wants to restart flights to South Africa after an absence of two years, but has not yet set a date. “We want to come back to South Africa, but we still do not have enough aircraft,” Paulo Rodrigues, Varig general manager for South Africa, said. – Reuters CUSTOM SHARE SERVICE CUSTOMISE […]

A NEW study shows that wine is the healthiest of alcoholic beverages and moderate wine drinkers live longer than teetotallers do, the Stockholm newspaper Aftonbladet has reported. A half bottle of wine per week halves the risk of dying of cardiovascular diseases, according to a dissertation presented by the medical doctor and researcher Holger Theobald. […]

TWO toddlers have been found dead in a swimming pool in Meredale, south of Johannesburg. Police said the bodies of the toddlers, a boy and a girl aged about two, were found floating in the pool at the Palm Springs Townhouse complex. The boy and girl were rushed to the Meredale Clinic where they were […]

SWAZILANDS Prime Minister Sibusiso Dlamini has announced a surprise cabinet reshuffle, demoting two of the kingdom’s most prominent politicians to junior portfolios. Dlamini declined to give reasons for the reshuffle, which saw outspoken finance minister John Carmichael shifted to education and veteran foreign affairs minister Albert Shabangu transferred to the housing and urban development portfolio. […]

SIZWE SAMAYENDE, Nelspruit | Monday THE State is about to expropriate a second farm and give it to rural families after its owners demanded double what the government was prepared to pay for it. Land and agriculture minister Thoko Didiza’s signature will ensure that 20 hectares of land belonging to Cairn Trust (Pty) Ltd outside […]

A PILOT burned alive when his plane burst into flames shortly after it crashed in Ematimatolo near Pietermaritzburg. “The pilot was buckled to the plane seat, but due to the fire and excessive heat, the local residents were unable to save him,” said a police spokesperson.

SOUTH African Constitutional Court judge Johan Kriegler has urged Africans to respect the rule of law regardless of their position in society. Kriegler made the remarks at a human rights retreat for Namibian judges at the weekend. The judge said there was significant pressure on constitutional democracy and human rights in developing countries, but when […]

US archeologists have found prehistoric tombs containing skeletons and rock drawings of the ancient Goddess Hathor which date back more than 6_000 years. The illustrations of the sky goddess Hathor were found on Mount Nabta, 1_350km south of Cairo. In Egyptian mythology, Hathor, the patron of love and joy, is variously represented with either a […]

JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Nelspruit | Monday MPUMALANGA is prosecuting doctors and nurses for gross misconduct after they tried to help rural rape victims get counselling and free anti-Aids drugs. The province’s health MEC Sibongile Manana has already fired district health manager Careen Swart for failing to get written authorisation for the Greater Nelspruit Rape Intervention Project […]

POLICE trying to arrest suspects in South Africa’s taxi wars opened fire as they battled some 200 stone-throwing people in Rustenburg, injuring six civilians and one policeman. SABC radio said a journalist was among those shot, and described the shooting as “indiscriminate”, saying scores of people were forced to dive for cover as shooting continued […]

A SOUTH African expert has condemned an Internet offer to sell penguins as pets. Paul Britton, chairman of the South African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds, which oversaw the mammoth rehabilitation of 40 000 oil-slicked penguins after a ship sank off Cape Town’s Table Bay last June, said penguins are not easily domesticated […]