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JOHANNESBURG – As ailing former president Nelson Mandela spends his eighth day receiving treatment for a recurring lung infection with well-wishes continue to be posted outside a Pretoria hospital on Sunday. A string of balloons with slogans such as “Get well soon Tata” written on them were hung on the gate outside the Medi-Clinic Heart…

HARARE – South Africa (SA) will return assets and cash stashed in the country by the slain Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Treasury said this week. The two governments agreed on “the repatriation from SA of Libyan funds”, totalling almost R10 billion. It is thought to include diamonds and gold. The assets were placed in SA…

JOHANNESBURG – Former South African President Nelson Mandela has been admitted to hospital with a lung infection. A presidential spokesperson said he is in a “serious but stable condition”, although he was able to breathe on his own — a “positive sign”. Mandela, 94, has been ill for some days but deteriorated overnight and was…

JOHANNESBURG – Assets worth billions belonging to slain Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi are thought to be held by South African banks, the Sunday Times reported. “National Treasury was approached by a group claiming to be representatives of the Libyan government,” Finance minister Pravin Gordhan’s spokesperson Jabulani Sikhakhane told the newspaper. It reported that Libyan investigators…

PRETORIA – The family of South African athlete Oscar Pistorius is “shaken” by leaked photos of the bathroom where he shot dead his girlfriend in February, a spokesman has said. Sky News on Friday showed graphic images purportedly of the bathroom where Reeva Steenkamp was killed. Police said they were “disgusted” by the leak, local…

KAMPALA – Uganda’s Daily Monitor newspaper has reopened after being shut down by the authorities for more than a week. The privately owned paper was closed after publishing a letter alleging that President Yoweri Museveni was grooming his son to succeed him. The letter, purporting to be from an army general, said those who opposed…

KINSHASA – M23 rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have declared a ceasefire for UN chief Ban Ki-moon’s visit to the conflict-hit area, a spokesman for the group says. Mr Ban has arrived in the regional capital Goma, where one person was killed in a rocket attack on Wednesday. He was deeply concerned by…

ACCRA – The death of four worshippers during a stampede for “holy water” inside a church in Ghana has provoked anger against the Nigerian preacher TB Joshua. At least 30 other worshipers were injured after thousands of people pushed into the church hall of a branch of TB Joshua’s Synagogue Church of All Nations (Scoan)…

HARARE – We have had a pulsating week full of propaganda from the so-called public media. One of the many laughable stunts is this pretension that Zanu PF is ready for an election by June 29 while the MDC is not. The situation on the ground shows that it is Zanu PF which is in…

CAIRO – Seven members of the Egyptian security forces have been seized by unidentified kidnappers in the Sinai peninsula, Egyptian officials say. The three policemen and four soldiers were captured while travelling in minibuses in northern Sinai, east of the city of El Arish. The kidnappers are said to be demanding the release from prison…