The Lions will start and end the round-robin phase of the 2023/24 URC season with showdowns against South African Shield winners the Stormers. ALSO READ: SA teams’ travel reduced in 2023/23 URC campaign LIONS TO BE TESTED FROM THE OUTSET On the back of their challenging opening URC game against the Stormers at Ellis Park, the […]

A roadside bombing blamed on the jihadist group Al-Shabaab killed eight members of an extended family in central Somalia, a local mayor said on Monday, 10 July 2023. The blast occurred late Sunday near a village outside Buloburde, which lies about 220 kilometres (136 miles) north of Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu. “Eight innocent civilians were killed […]

A Libyan court has sentenced 37 people convicted of human trafficking over migrant deaths in the Mediterranean, authorities said on Monday, 10 July 2023. The North African country is a key departure point for migrants, with many risking the perilous sea journey seeking a better life in Europe. The appeals court in Al-Bayda, some 800 […]

Three people died when a helicopter owned by a mining corporation crashed in southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a source in the security services and a witness said on Tuesday. The crash happened in a ravine several minutes after taking off on Monday in bad weather at a mine at Kambove in Haut-Katanga province. ALSO […]

Six people are missing after an apartment block under construction in the Guinean capital Conakry collapsed, a local official and a worker on the site said on Tuesday. ALSO READ: Sixth pupil linked to Mitchell’s Plain accident dies in hospital The building, located in the southern suburb of Matoto, collapsed on Monday afternoon, burying five workers […]

Lawyers for journalists and rights activists held in Morocco called on the authorities Monday 10 July 2023 to find a “judicial, political and legal solution” that would enable their clients to be freed. “I call on the judiciary and the highest authority in the land (King Mohamed VI) to come up with a judicial, political […]

Human Rights Watch on Tuesday called on the International Criminal Court to investigate possible “war crimes” in Sudan’s Darfur region where fighting has intensified despite calls for an end to the conflict. The New York-based group charged that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied Arab militias “summarily executed” at least 28 members of the Massalit ethnic […]

Amnesty International said Tuesday that West and Central African nations must do more to fight corruption and stop “persecuting” human rights defenders who reveal and denounce it. ALSO READ: Senior Health official implicated in corruption of Digital Vibes saga In a report launched for African Anti-Corruption Day, the organisation denounced the “arrest, harassment, detention, hefty fines […]

An ex-Mozambican finance minister wanted by Washington in connection with a graft scandal that triggered an unprecedented financial crisis in his home country will be handed over to the FBI this week, South African police said Monday 10 July 2023. Manuel Chang has been held in South Africa since 2018 at the United States’ request […]

The wife of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who is petitioning the British government’s decision to extradite him to the United States, on Monday appealed for clemency from the US president. WATCH | Fists fly in the stands at Loftus Versfeld The Australian publisher is the object of a US extradition request to face trial for divulging US […]

Air travel between Libya and Italy will resume in September after a nearly decade-long suspension following an EU ban, the head of the Tripoli-based UN-backed government said on Sunday 9 July 2023. “The Italian government has informed us of its decision to lift the air embargo imposed on Libyan civil aviation for 10 years,” interim […]

Russia attacked Kyiv in an overnight drone strike, causing minor damage, authorities said Tuesday as NATO leaders prepare for a summit focused on supporting Ukraine against Moscow’s invasion. ALSO READ: Russia takes control of Wagner’s heavy military equipment “The enemy attacked Kyiv from the air for the second time this month,” Kyiv’s military administration said on its Telegram […]

A Rwandan member of the so-called blue helmets United Nations peacekeeping force was killed Monday in an attack by an armed group in the Central African Republic, a UN spokesman said. “Earlier today a peacekeeper from Rwanda was killed when his unit came under attack by members of an unidentified armed group” during a patrol of […]

Conflict-torn Sudan is on the brink of a “full-scale civil war” that could destabilise the entire region, the United Nations warned Sunday 9 July 2023 after an air strike on a residential area killed around two dozen civilians. The Ministry of Health reported “22 dead and a large number of wounded among the civilians” from […]

The Threads app launched by Instagram as a rival to Twitter has signed up more than 100 million users in less than five days, data tracking websites said on Monday, smashing the record of AI tool ChatGPT for fastest-growing consumer app. ALSO READ: Legal battle? Mark Zuckerberg’s Threads vs Elon Musk’s Twitter While ChatGPT took two months to […]

A rare snowfall dusted Johannesburg and other high-lying parts of South Africa on Monday, with weather services warning of potential road closures and dangerously cold temperatures. ALSO READ: Snow, very cold weather expected in THESE parts of Mpumalanga Residents in the business hub woke up to snowfalls lightly covering rooftops and gardens as a cold front […]

Human Rights Watch on Monday urged a halt to a major East African oil project led by French giant TotalEnergies, warning of dire consequences for the environment and local communities. TotalEnergies and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation signed a $10-billion agreement last year to develop Ugandan oilfields and ship the crude through a 1,445-kilometre (900-mile) […]

Nigeria imposed a 24-hour curfew in a north-central region after more tit-for-tat attacks killed at least another nine people. The move was imposed Sunday in Mangu district in Plateau State followed two months of clashes between nomadic herders and pastoral farmers that community leaders say left more than 200 dead. ALSO READ: Viral Video: Nigerian youths […]

South Africa’s crushing electricity outages could end sooner than expected as power generation is being ramped up, an upbeat cabinet minister said on Sunday 9 July 2023. The state energy firm Eskom has been imposing daily scheduled blackouts, called load-shedding, to safeguard the grid whenever demand outstrips supply due to underperforming power plants. ALSO READ: South […]

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said Sunday 9 July 2023 that next month’s BRICS summit, which Vladimir Putin has been invited to attend, will be held in person despite an arrest warrant on the Russian leader. South Africa is the current chair of the BRICS, a grouping of heavyweights that also includes Brazil, Russia, India […]

Mark Cavendish crashed out of the Tour de France on Saturday ending the British cyclist’s quest to break the all-time record of stage wins. Mark Cavendish crashed out of the Tour de France on Saturday ending the star British cyclist’s quest to break the all-time record of stage wins. ALSO READ | Tour de France: Chris Froome left off […]

The company that operated the sub which imploded during a dive into the Titanic wreck, killing all five people aboard, said Thursday 6 July 2023 it had halted all activities indefinitely. The Titan sub was reported missing on June 18 and the US Coast Guard said on June 22 that the vessel had suffered a […]

Twitter threatened to sue Meta just hours after the Instagram parent company launched Threads, an app it hopes will beat out the struggling site owned by Elon Musk. In a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, published by online news outlet Semafor on Thursday, Musk’s lawyer Alex Spiro accused the company of “unlawful misappropriation of […]

Armed men attacked a logistics convoy of the UN mission in the north of Mali on Thursday 6 July 2023, a source at the UN peacekeeping mission told AFP. “Unidentified armed individuals opened fire against a logistics convoy of the Minusma force moving from the (locality of) Labbezanga to Gao, the source said. Gao is the […]

An armed attack in northern Burkina Faso, an area plagued by jihadist violence, has left about 10 civilians dead, security and local sources told AFP on Thursday 6 July 2023. A large group of armed men descended on the village of Sampelga, some 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the northeastern town of Dori in the […]