Rural

The case against a 23-year-old man accused of killing Nelson Mandela's great-granddaughter in a car crash was postponed by the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court on Friday.

The case against Sizwe Mankazana was postponed until November 5 for further investigation and an outstanding forensic report. He faces charges of drunk driving and culpable homicide.

PRIME Minister Raila Odinga has been named among the politicians making "unsavoury, derogatory and insulting" remarks during the campaigns before referendum on the proposed constitution on August 4.

The United Nations today expressed its deep concern over a helicopter pilot who has been missing for two days in the south of Sudan's war-torn Darfur region.

On Monday, the joint African Union-United Nations peacekeeping mission, known as UNAMID, lost contact with one of its helicopters after it landed in Aborjo in South Darfur state.

The West African Examination Council (WAEC) has launched new online services aimed at helping thousands of private candidates in the country register for the examination.

An online service program aimed at affording thousands of re-sitters (private candidates) the opportunity to register for WEAC Examinations in their counties of origin has been officially launched.

NO fewer than 500 Nigerians are currently serving jail terms for various offences in Switzerland. Also, 1,800 others are living and working legitimately in that country while 1,600 seek asylum annually.

Police officers and prison warders were on Wednesday awarded a long-awaited 28 per cent salary increment. Senior officers also benefited from the raise, but at the lower rate of 25 per cent.

This is only the first instalment of a pay plan that will see the salary of the lowest- earning officers doubled in three years.

Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo has come out strongly in defence of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir against allegations of war crimes in Darfur by the International Criminal Court.

US President Barack Obama spoke strongly of his wish to see a more prosperous Kenya in his first full interview dedicated to the country of his father's birth.

During the White House interview with a Kenyan journalist, President Obama urged Kenyans to seize "the moment" offered through the referendum on a new constitution to put the post-election violence behind it.

President Goodluck Jonathan has praised the perseverance and commitment of Nigerians in the past 11 years of trying times in nurturing democracy and urged them not to relent.

He enjoined them on Sunday to continue to pray for democracy to thrive and pleaded with them to do everything within the law to guarantee credible and acceptable elections next year.

A porous border with lawless Somalia and rough terrain continue to drive sugar and arms smuggling in northern Kenya, threatening to cripple the local sugar industry and increasing insecurity.

Although the illegal sugar imports were initially destined for major towns in North Eastern Province like Mandera, Wajir, Habaswein and Modogashe, the barons are now targeting even smaller centres.

The first Review Conference of the International Criminal Court opens Monday in the Ugandan capital, Kampala. The conference is the first opportunity to propose amendments to the treaty that established the ICC, the Rome Statute, and to assess the implementation and impact of the ICC.

The Presidential Projects Assessment Committee (PPAC) has reviewed the contract for the construction of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, second runway, slashing off N13.5 billion from the original contract sum of N64 billion.

The project will now cost N49.6 billion.

Kenya is missing out on big opportunities to export professionals due to the nature of its education system which emphasises more on theory than practical skills, a World Bank study says.

A new family law has raised tension in Mali. This controversial law, intended to give greater freedoms and rights to women, has been sent back to the National Assembly for a second reading after protests from Muslim radicals.

These Muslim are threatening to make the country ungovernable if the law is enacted in its original form as voted by Parliament in August 2009.

The human and environmental disruption wreaked by drought in Somaliland, where more than 60 percent of people raise livestock for a living, means the self-declared, but barely recognized, independent state should draw up its own plan for climate change adaptation, according to a new report.