Head of electoral commission sentenced to one year in prison for electoral fraud, ten days ahead of presidential vote. Guinea’s electoral commission chief has been sentenced to one year in prison for electoral fraud during June’s presidential vote, just ten days before the contest goes to a run-off on September 19. Ben Sekou Sylla, the president of the National [...]
A suspected terrorist with links to the failed July 21 bombings in London will be deported to Ethiopia in the interests of national security, a court has ruled. Home Secretary Theresa May said the test case was a success for the UK’s policy of “deportations with assurances”, which sees individuals who could not ordinarily be [...]
The process of officially documenting Zimbabweans in South Africa will kick off on September 20, Department Home Affairs Director General Mkuseli Apleni said on Friday. Apleni’s announcement in Pretoria follows Cabinet’s announcement earlier this month that it had taken a decision to end the special dispensation for Zimbabwean nationals, introduced in April 2009. The special [...]
The government of Zimbabwe has banned South African band Freshlyground over a Spitting Image-style music video which portrays its ageing president Robert Mugabe as a chicken afraid to relinguish power. The band, which is made up of South Africans, Zimbabweans and Mozambicans and has a pan-African following, was due to perform a concert at the [...]
Swaziland unions have condemned the prime minister’s suggestion that dissidents should be beaten on their feet with spikes. Barnabas Dlamini also said foreigners who meddled in the affairs of sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch should be subject to the traditional punishment, known as “sipakatane”. Some 50 pro-democracy activists were arrested this week. They want King [...]
Nigerian security forces have freed two Russian sailors who were abducted from their vessel in the oil-producing Niger Delta a month ago, a senior security officer said on Thursday. Members of the State Security Service raided the kidnappers’ hideout in the mangrove creeks of the delta, one of the world’s largest wetlands, on Tuesday, according [...]
THE crisis of confidence between Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala of Oyo State and two of his predecessors, on one hand, and some traditional rulers, on the other, has deepened. Alao-Akala’s ‘Eid-Eil Fitri’ car gifts were rejected by his predecessors, Alhaji Lam Adesina and Senator Rashidi Ladoja. Two first class traditional rulers, the Alaafin of Oyo, who [...]
Dlamini said the government could also use the foot whipping, known locally as sipakatane, against foreigners who interfere in the affairs of Africa’s last absolute monarchy. He was speaking after two days of pro-democracy protests in Swaziland that saw dozens of people arrested, including the leader of the banned opposition People’s United Democratic Movement of [...]
Nigeria’s President, Goodluck Jonathan has joined other world leaders in condemning the alleged plans by a US Pastor, Terry Jones, to burn copies of the Quran, as the United States marks the anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. The US Secretary of State, Indian Prime Minister and his Malaysian and UK counterparts have [...]
Hundreds of youths, civil society activists, politicians, students and the elderly yesterday thronged the streets of Torit, the capital of Eastern Equatoria state, advocating for separation of Southern Sudan in the next year’s referendum. Their fate, will however, be decided on January 9, 2011 when the long-awaited referendum, a key requirement in Sudan’s 2005 Comprehensive [...]
