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ANC youth leader guilty of 'hate speech' after rape jibe

A CONTROVERSIAL South African youth leader has been convicted of "hate speech" for claiming that a woman who four years ago accused the future President, Jacob Zuma, of rape had "a nice time".

Rwanda's Greens face threats and violence

By Daniel Howden in London

RWANDA'S democratic credentials have been questioned amid evidence that authorities are blocking efforts by the country's Green Party to contest this year's elections.

Britain cuts aid to Malawi over $13m jet

Britain, Malawi's main bilateral donor, has cut aid to the southern African nation this year after Malawi bought a $13.26m (€9.7m) presidential jet last year, a senior British diplomat said yesterday.

Mandela's ex-wife slams his 'bad deal'

A British newspaper interview that quotes Nelson Mandela's ex-wife bitterly criticising the 92-year-old icon as having "let us down" has prompted outrage in South Africa.

Sectarian bloodbath as 500 villagers butchered

By Jonathan Clayton, and Ruth Gledhill

ON the dusty streets of three Christian villages in northern Nigeria, dozens of bodies lined the streets yesterday. Other victims of the weekend's Muslim fury jammed a local morgue, the limbs of slaughtered children tangled in a grotesque mess.

Newborn among 500 villagers slaughtered by machete gang

By Duncan Woodside in Fort Portal, Uganda

Rioters armed with machetes have slaughtered 500 villagers in Nigeria, including a four-day-old child.

Children are buried alive in mud landslide

DURING heavy rains, elders in the Ugandan village of Nametsi told children to shelter in the hospital. However, it turned into a death trap as a landslide engulfed the building.

Zimbabwe still 'threat to US'

President Barack Obama said a state of emergency would continue for an eighth year between America and Zimbabwe because certain Zimbabwean officials "continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the foreign policy of the United States".

Gadaffi calls for jihad against Switzerland

Libyan leader Muammar Gadaffi called yesterday for a "jihad" or armed struggle against Switzerland, saying it was an infidel state that was destroying mosques.

Egyptians lived like gods but paid with their health

By Russell Jenkins in London

THE BANQUETS offered by high priests to appease the gods of Ancient Egypt may have been welcomed as a perk of the job but they also increased their chances of cardiovascular disease and early death, research suggests.