Staff Reporter

A BUS carrying American tourists on their way back from the Kruger National Park burst into flames on the road outside Lydenburg in Mpumalanga province. Police said the tourists evacuated the bus minutes after an electrical short in the engine started the fire. The flames spread rapidly to the main body of the bus and […]

SWAZILANDS health ministry has warned of a bilharzia outbreak this summer, especially in hot areas like the Lubombo region, which borders northern KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. Health inspectors said children were most susceptible to the water-borne disease because they enjoyed playing in streams and rivers. If not treated early, the illness can cause complications in […]

THE Ranch, a Sandton brothel for the rich and famous, has been closed after a police raid two hours before it was set to open its doors for the first time in the new year, The Star newspaper reported. Police ejected staff and placed hired security guards at the entrance to prevent anyone from gaining […]

JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Pretoria | Wednesday SOUTH Africa’s Bureau of Standards (SABS) has announced the purchase of equipment worth millions of rands to monitor the effects of radiation in mobile cellular telephones. SABS President Eugene Julies said the sophisticated monitoring equipment would help determine the exact radiation humans were subjected to while using cellular telephones. “Since […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Wednesday A TOP official at South Africas Road Accident Fund, which has a deficit of R9.2bn, has launched a stinging attack on the politicians, unscrupulous lawyers and excessive administration expenditure he says are responsible for driving the fund to the brink of bankruptcy. The funds Duif de Waal, a re-appointed […]

MUSIC piracy and the illegal importation of audio and video music cassettes is costing Tanzania an average of US$9,4m every year, industry authorities claim. Tanzania’s Music Copyright Association (TMCA) secretary general Francis Kaswahili said more than six million audio music cassettes and 2,5m video cassettes were illegally duplicated and sold on the country’s streets during […]

UGANDAN President Yoweri Museveni has been officially nominated as a candidate for presidential elections to be held in the next two months, before a large cheering crowd in central Kampala. The crowd was peaceful, in contrast to Monday, when angry supporters of presidential hopeful Nasser Sebaggala clashed with police after their candidate was disqualified by […]

THE world will pay an enormous price if it ignores the plight of refugees and fails to find them homes, the new UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Ruud Lubbers, has warned. He said “it would be nonsense to praise UNHCR for its care for refugees” unless the international community made “political efforts and, where […]

THE Nigerian subsidiary of South Africa’s mobile phones group MTN is among five companies qualified to bid for three phone licences to be auctioned here next week. The other four successful bidders are Econet Wireless Nigeria Ltd; United Networks Mobile Ltd; Communication Investments Ltd; (CIL) and MSI-Celtel Nigeria Ltd. Three new licences to operate mobile […]

SOME 28_000 displaced people who have fled Angola’s ongoing civil war are living in inhuman conditions in camps at Matala, in southern Huila province, according to press reports. “It’s a desolate landscape,” said the state-run Angolan Journal in an article written by two journalists who visited the camps, around 1_000km south of Luanda. “Malnourished children, […]

A YOUNG man whose love interest resisted his charms shot himself in the thigh to spite her, but bled to death. Mpumalanga police said Bongani Mthombothi, 26, of Kabokweni, near White River, was devastated when a woman known only as Precious was unmoved by his ardent affections. He could not take it anymore and drew […]

BRIAN LIGOMEKA, Blantyre | Wednesday INTERNATIONAL human rights watchdog Amnesty International has slammed Malawi’s inability to prevent massive rape and sexual abuse of juvenile prisoners in the country’s penal system. Amnesty International’s German chapter lodged formal written complaints with Malawi authorities condemning the systematic abuse of juvenile prisoners at Malawi’s largest penitentiary, the Zomba Maximum […]

JAPANESE Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori visited the grave of Hector Pietersen, the first victim of the anti-apartheid uprisings in Johannesburg’s Soweto township, on Monday, his first day in South Africa. South Africa expects Mori’s visit to build both political and trade relations with Japan, its most important trading partner in Asia. The prime minister is […]

SOUTH African diamonds group De Beers is considering selling its brand name to a large luxury goods group, as part of a strategic review to unlock the value of the prestigious name, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday. The report said the company, which controls about 60% of the sales of uncut diamonds, is in […]

TWO Nigerians suspected of drug trafficking and transferred last year to the United States have challenged their extradition in court. Lanre Shittu and Felix Wagboje asked the Abuja Federal High Court to reverse the transfer order, the official said. Extradition proceedings were still running when the two were flown to the US last year to […]

A COURT in Malawi has finished hearing a case of alleged corruption by sacked government minister Brown Mpinganjira and is expected to hand down its ruling on January 16. Mpinganjira, who says the case against him is based on trumped-up charges, was charged on four counts of corruption amounting to $2_000 when he was education […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Tuesday STATE armaments agency Armscor says it will answer allegations of corruption against top officials following reports that it faces a R2bn lawsuit arising from a failed deal to purchase surplus SA Air Force aircraft. Armscors reaction follows weekend reports that military hardware company Quantam International is planning to sue […]

AN unmarried 17-year-old Nigerian girl found guilty by an Islamic court of having sex before marriage will be lashed 180 times on January 27, says the judge handling her case. Bariya Ibrahim Magazu, who was found guilty by an Islamic court last September, gave birth to a baby daughter in late December. Her punishment – […]

EIGHTEEN people who had been accused of high treason in Tanzania’s semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar are demanding compensation for three years of imprisonment. Lawyer Nassor Khamis Mohamed told the daily Mwananchi that he had served notice on the Zanzibar government demanding between 1.5 billion Tanzanian shillings ($1.9m) and 3.3 billion shillings ($4.1m) for each of […]

SUDAN’S Islamist military leader Omar al-Beshir has vowed to press on with liberating rebel-held areas of the south and with imposing Islamic law nationwide. Beshir renewed his commitment to “establishing peace” and achieving reconciliation in Sudan, and called on his opponents for reconciliation based on the principles of the “regime of salvation.” – AFP

ONLINE retailer Amazon.com released has preliminary data showing the company reached its sales goals in the last quarter of 2000, despite the slowing economy. Analysts said the news should put to rest concerns the company will need to raise more cash to survive through year’s end. But they also said Amazon’s sales growth was lower […]

THE Portuguese driver of an assistance vehicle in the Paris-Dakar rally was badly injured when he drove off the track and struck a mine in Western Sahara, an organiser said. Rally director Hubert Auriol said Jose Eduardo Ribeiro lost his left foot in the mine explosion when he steered off a track vehicles were supposed […]

SOME 70 German tourists stranded in Windhoek after Namibia’s national airline overbooked their international flights will be accommodated on a special flight Tuesday, an airline spokesman said. Local media reported that up to 350 passengers were stranded in the Namibian capital at the weekend, despite many having confirmed their bookings. Air Namibia said an unusually […]

EGYPTS Culture Minister Faruq Hosni has ordered three books withdrawn from sale that were deemed indecent – and sacked the official who published them. Hosni said he took his decision because the books offended standards of decency, denying press claims that he was influenced by a protest campaign by the Muslim Brotherhood. Hosni did not […]

JOHANNESBURG police have asked local authorities to drain the artificial Bruma Lake, where five bodies have been found in the past nine months, fearing a serial killer is on the loose. Two more bodies of middle-aged men were found this week in the lake, east of the city centre, which is surrounded by a shopping […]

THE Nigerian government has announced a ban on the importation of vehicles and other goods overland in a bid to increase activity at its under-used ports. In recent years, thousands of cars have been imported into Nigeria from the neighbouring countries of Benin and Niger. Finance Minister Adamu Ciroma said the importation of electricity generators […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maputo | Sunday HARD on the heels of a South African cholera epidemic which has killed nearly 60 people, more than 50 have died from the disease and 2_400 fallen ill in the Mozambican capital Maputo, according to news reports. Hospitals in the capital were admitting between 40 and 50 new cholera patients […]

SOUTH Africa’s youngest Aids activist, 11-year-old Aids sufferer Nkosi Johnson, remains in a critical condition at home in Johannesburg. His foster mother Gail Johnson said Nkosi, who suffered three severe seizures at the weekend, was still semi-comatose. Doctors discovered Nkosi suffered brain damage after finding a layer of damaged tissue. Nkosi was initially given nine […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Abidjan | Monday AN attempted coup d’etat was underway early on Monday in the Ivory Coast, with heavy fighting wracking the countrys economic capital as loyalist forces attempted to overpower mutinous troops who had seized the television station. No toll from the fighting is immediately available and the situation on the ground remains […]

A GANG of cash heist gangsters risked their lives for a mere R2 each after pension payout security guards foiled an ambush. The 10 heavily armed gangsters used three stolen vehicles to ambush a convoy of armoured vans belonging to Empilweni Pension Payout Services between Witbank and Siyabuswa, but the armoured van ferrying the money […]

REPORTS of a gold strike in Mali by Hyundai Corp. have sent the stock price of the Hyundai Group’s trading arm soaring despite the company’s efforts to downplay exuberance. Hyundai confirmed it had discovered gold in the west African state, but in a statement to the Korea Stock Exchange, denied rumours that the find contained […]

A NIGERIAN minister accused of leaving a pregnant woman to die by the roadside after a fatal collision involving his convoy has gone abroad, his office said, as the couple who died were buried. Nigeria’s minister for Africa, Dapo Sarumi, left this week for an undisclosed destination for medical attention”. Critics suggested his health concerns […]