EVENING REPORT 19.11.2002.

UGANDAN TROOPS KILL REBELS.

KAMPALA: Ugandan troops have killed twenty-eight members of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army and have lost four of their number in clashes in the north of the country. The fighting occurred at Kamon-Ojwii village in the Agago county of Pader district. The Lord's Resistance Army has been fighting against the Ugandan army since 1988. It wants to replace the government with one based on the biblical Ten Commandments. However, analysts say the group has earned notoriety for its brutality against civilians.

CRIMINAL SUSPECTS DIE IN OVER CROWDED CELL IN TANZANIA.

DAR ES SALAAM: Reports from the town of RUJEWA in south-western Tanzania say seventeen criminal suspects have died of suffocation in an overcrowded police cell. Seven others are in a critical condition in hospital. The reports said some 115 inmates were held at dawn in a cell at the Rujewa Police Station, whose capacity was for only thirty people. The Tanzanian Home Affairs Ministry said the authorities were investigating the circumstances of the deaths.

FALL IN LAND MINE DEATHS.

GENEVA: The International Red Cross says deaths from anti-personnel mines have fallen considerably in countries that are implementing the 1997 Ottawa Convention that bans the use of such devices. The Red Cross said that thirty-one countries had disclosed they had destroyed all stocks of anti-personnel land mines, with a further 22 nations in the process of destroying their supplies. One-hundred-and-twenty-two countries were now fully bound by the Ottawa treaty. However, the Red Cross warned that anti-personnel mines continued to kill and maim people, especially in Afghanistan. Some 245-million land mines are still stocked in arsenals in many countries around the world.

IVORIAN REBELS OFFER PEACE PROPOSAL.

LOME: An Ivorian rebel delegation in Togo has submitted new peace proposals to West African mediators. The suggestions called for a new political order in Ivory Coast, but did not dismiss President Laurent Gbagbo's government as illegitimate, unlike a previous document which was rejected by the mediators. But the rebels said they still wanted Gbagbo to resign to make way for new elections. The new document also said the issue of rebel disarmament, a key government demand, would be addressed only after a definitive resolution to the crisis in Ivory Coast. The West African mediators said they would examine the proposals before meeting again with the rebels and the government. Diplomats say three weeks of negotiations in Lome have produced little sign of a comprehensive deal to end the war in Ivory Coast.

CHURCH PROTEST ACTION ENDS IN LIBERIA.

MONROVIA: Church-run schools in Liberia reopened today, after President Charles Taylor asked the Liberian Council of Churches to end a protest campaign against a politician who accused a leading cleric of involvement in a massacre. The council closed its schools and ordered its hospitals to offer only emergency services after Sando Johnson, the majority leader in the Liberian parliament, linked the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Liberia, Archbishop Michael Francis, to the Harbel massacre in 1992. More than five-hundred people were killed in the atrocity. Observers say that Johnson is known for such utterances.

TOURISTS POUR INTO SOUTH AFRICA.

JOHANNESBURG: More than six-million foreigners have visited South Africa this year. However, this figure is being threatened by the number of violent crimes inflicted on tourists. This is according to the Chief Executive of South African Tourism Cheryl Carolus. She has condemned the rape of a British tourist in Mpumalanga at the weekend. Four men hijacked the woman and a friend before crashing a vehicle. Carolus says her department is working closely with the province's Tourism and Safety departments to ensure that tangible measures are put in place with immediate effect to stop such attacks.

SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE ARREST FOREIGN NATIONALS.

JOHANNESBURG: The South African Police have made another breakthrough in their investigations into a spate of computer thefts in Johannesburg and Pretoria. They have recovered a substantial amount of stolen computer equipment in Soweto after arresting a 30-year-old theft suspect. The recovered equipment includes central processing units, printers, scanners, speakers and keyboards. Police say they are following up information received and could possibly recover more equipment. Last week, police arrested two Cameroonian men in Orange Grove, Johannesburg and also arrested a Nigerian in Pretoria in connection with possession of stolen computer equipment.

OPPOSITION IN SOUTH AFRICA ACCUSES LOCAL GOVERNMENT OF CORRUPTION.

JOHANNESBURG: The opposition Democratic Alliance in South Africa's Gauteng Province has asked the Public Protector to investigate allegations of corruption in the Johannesburg Metro Police Call Center. Addressing the media in Johannesburg, Democratic Alliance spokesperson, Many de Freitas, says their investigation into the allegations revealed massive corruption. De Freitas says of the 45 people employed at the center, 25 are implicated in some irregularities. This include people with bogus qualifications being appointed in high positions, while some obtained jobs through sexual favours and nepotism.

GOOD NEWS FOR SOUTH AFRICAN ECONOMY.

JOHANNESBURG: Economists note that last month's inflation figures had a positive spin-off for the South African Rand. The currency surged to its best level of nine-Rand-53 against the American dollar, which was reached yesterday. Economists say the higher inflation rate means that the South African Reserve Bank will hold interest rates at current levels for a longer while. This suggests that foreign investors can enjoy the high yields offered by South African assets for an extended period. The American dollar is trading at nine-Rand-53. The British pound is worth 15-Rand-14 and the Euro will buy nine-Rand-66.

SOUTH AFRICAN SPORTS FEDERATIONS COMBINE.

JOHANNESBURG: The South African Cycling Federation and Pedal Power Association have agreed in principle to merge and form a new body to govern cycling in South Africa. The new body will bear the name of Cycling South Africa. It will organise and promote cycling in all its forms. It is envisaged that this body will come into force on the first of January, next year. Both president of the South African Cycling Federation, Gotty Hanson, and chairman of Pedal Power Association, Frans Fouche, have expressed their excitement at the agreement.

Prepared in Johannesburg, South Africa.

UPDATE TO THE MORNING REPORT 19/11/02

EGYPTIAN COURT SEIZES PROPERTY OF 21 BUSINESSMEN.

CAIRO: An Egyptian court has seized the property of 21 businessmen and two bankers implicated in expediting or receiving improper loans totalling nearly 170 million dollars. Court sources say the High State Security Court has acted against the businessmen, including two who have already been detained, and are accused of receiving loans without providing sufficient guarantees for the money. The court meted out the same measure to the managers of two Cairo branches of the semi-public bank who have been accused of authorising the loans without sufficient guarantees.

AIDS, MALARIA COST UGANDA OVER A BILLION DOLLARS: PRESIDENT.

ENTEBBE: Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni says AIDS and malaria are costing the country over a billion dollars a year in lost wealth and are ruining the health ministry. Museveni says the AIDS epidemic costs Uganda 702 million dollars a year while malaria costs 348 million dollars a year. He was addressing a meeting of African health ministers in Entebbe, 40 kilometres from the capital, Kampala. Uganda's gross domestic product is about six billion dollars. Uganda is one of the countries worst-hit by the AIDS epidemic in the world and has about one-point-two million HIV positive citizens.

RESEARCHERS CLOSER TO CREATING VACCINE FOR MALARIA.

ARUSHA: Researchers say they are getting closer to creating a vaccine for malaria, a disease that kills nearly three-million people each year - most of them children. Scientists conducting vaccine research in a variety of locations are to release test results at an international conference in Arusha, Tanzania, shortly. The Multilateral Initiative on Malaria says a vaccine has proved to be safe in children during trials in Gambia. The Initiative is a coalition of research institutes and public-health agencies, bringing together about 900 delegates at the conference. Malaria kills an estimated two-point -seven million people world-wide each year, of whom three-quarters are children under five.

S.A. ACTOR IS DEPORTED FROM NAMIBIA.

JOHANNESBURG: South African actor and director Mees Eksteen, who is facing child abuse charges, has been deported back to the country after he jumped bail and fled to Namibia. He was arrested in Namibia on Saturday on immigration charges. Police said he was found in possession of both Namibian and South African passports, without permission to hold either. They said Eksteen was wanted in South Africa on five charges of indecently assaulting girls between the ages of eight and 13. He was arrested in South Africa's Western Cape province last year and released on bail pending his trial.

GERMANY IS TO INVEST $155000 IN ETHIOPIAN LANDMINE STUDY.

ADDIS ABABA: Germany is in the process of investing 155-thousand dollars in a study on the impact of landmines in Ethiopia. The project will be undertaken by the Ethiopian Mine Action Office. Officials said the study will serve as a basis for a further investigation that will look into, among other issues, the impact of landmines on communities. Hundreds of thousands of landmines were laid in Ethiopia during the country's border conflict with Eritrea. The war ended in December 2000.

FIGHT AGAINST RIVER BLINDNESS BENEFITS FROM SUDAN ACCORD.

KHARTOUM: Sudan's Health Minister Ahmad Bilal says the fight against river blindness will benefit from the extended cease-fire accord signed yesterday. The civil war has been the major barrier to erasing onochoceriasis, as the fly-borne disease is known scientifically, from the Sudan. Southern Sudan, where most of the fighting has occurred, is home to the highest infected areas in the country. With the backing of former American president Jimmy Carter's Carter centre and other health organisations, great inroads were made over the past five years despite the war. Bilal said that more than 500-thousand people still suffer from the infection. The disease enters the skin through a fly-bite wound, which allows a parasite to enter the body.

SUDAN ENVOY TO VISIT UGANDA TO DISCUSS L.R.A. REBELS.

KHARTOUM: Sudan's Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail says a Sudanese envoy is to visit Kampala next week to discuss its concerns about the Lord's Resistance Army or the L.R.A, as authorities in the border area blamed the Ugandan rebel group for an imminent famine. Ismail declined to say definitively whether renewal of an agreement which has allowed Ugandan troops to enter Sudanese territory in pursuit of the rebels would be on the agenda. But he defended the accord in the Sudanese parliament against bitter criticism from lawmakers, insisting it was essential for the interest of the country to get rid of the L.R.A. Ismail said the government was currently studying the latest requests from Uganda concerning an extension of the agreement reached in March.

U.N. SEEKS $3-BILLION TO AID 50 MILLION IN CRISIS.

NEW YORK: The United Nations launches its annual global appeal in eight cities around the world today, seeking to raise a record three billion dollars in aid to help about 50 million people in crisis. The U.N. says its consolidated annual appeal will focus this year on providing hope to communities ravaged by conflict and other crises. Once again this year, most of the countries on the U.N. list are in Africa, where the effects of poverty and conflict are aggravated by the world's highest AIDS infection rates. These include Angola; the Great Lakes region including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Uganda; Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan in northeastern Africa; the Southern Africa region, and West African states including Guinea, Ivory Coast and its sub-region, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

NEPAD'S CREDIBILITY GAP NEEDS TO BE CLOSED: D.A.

CAPE TOWN: The main opposition party in South Africa, the Democratic Alliance, has charged that Africa's credibility regarding its sincerity in implementing the New Partnership for Africa's Development, or NEPAD, is in the process of being destroyed. The party's chief whip, Douglas Gibson, was commenting on media reports that President Thabo Mbeki had sent a letter to Group of Eight leaders to try to allay their concerns that the planned peer-review mechanism, to ensure African governments were democratic and accountable, was being watered down. Gibson claimed Mbeki's letter had created further confusion. Gibson said it was apparent that there was an analysis gap between the West and Africa.

CONGO-BRAZZAVILLE SENDS TIMBER TO D.R.C.

BRAZZAVILLE: Congo-Brazzaville is sending consignments of timber to the Democratic Republic of Congo in partial payment of its electricity bill. The two neighbours signed an agreement under which Congo-Brazzaville's state power company would send Kinshasa more than six-thousand logs of eucalyptus towards its debt of some 19-million dollars. The power company in Congo-Brazzaville has suffered from chronic financial problems. It has failed in recent months to provide a steady supply of power to the capital of Brazzaville and the port city of Pointe-Noire.

ANTI-PERSONNEL MINE DEATHS HAVE FALLEN CONSIDERABLY: I.R.C.

GENEVA: The International Red Cross says deaths from anti-personnel mines have fallen considerably in countries that are implementing the 1997 Ottawa Convention that bans the use of such devices. The Red Cross said that thirty-one countries had disclosed they had destroyed all stocks of anti-personnel land mines, with a further 22 nations in the process of destroying their supplies. One-hundred-and-twenty-two countries were now fully bound by the Ottawa treaty. However, the Red Cross warned that anti-personnel mines continued to kill and maim people, especially in Afghanistan. Some 245-million land mines are still stocked in arsenals in many countries around the world.

KENYAN PRESIDENT'S REIGN DRAWING TO CLOSE.

NAIROBI: Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi's 22-year reign is drawing to a close. Two main candidates in the December presidential race have presented their nomination papers and have held massive rallies in Nairobi. The polls on the 27th of next month are regarded to be landmark elections because Moi is constitutionally barred from running again. Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of the late founding president Jomo Kenyatta, is standing for Moi's ruling KANU party. Two-time presidential loser and veteran politician Mwai Kibaki, who is the chairman of Kenya's opposition Democratic Party, is also in the running. Up to seven other candidates will be nominated later this week.

S.A. CYCLING FEDERATION AND PEDAL POWER ASSOCIATION MERGE.

JOHANNESBURG: The South African Cycling Federation and Pedal Power Association have agreed in principle to merge and form a new body to govern cycling in South Africa. The new body will bear the name of Cycling South Africa. It will organise and promote cycling in all its forms. It is envisaged that this body will come into force on the first of January, next year. Both president of the South African Cycling Federation, Gotty Hanson, and chairman of Pedal Power Association, Frans Fouche, have expressed their excitement at the agreement.

MORNING REPORT 19.11.02

SUDANESE GOVERNMENT AND REBELS EXTEND CEASEFIRE.

KHARTOUM: Parties to the Sudanese civil war have agreed to extend a ceasefire until the end of scheduled peace negotiations at the end of March next year, but did not reach a comprehensive agreement on power sharing that mediators have hoped for. After five weeks of talks in Kenya, the Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army signed two documents, one extending the truce, the other covering a few points on power sharing which both sides accepted. The two sides signed an initial ceasefire, last month, which was due to expire at the end of next month. They are due to meet again in Kenya next January to resume negotiations aimed at ending the Sudanese civil war. At least two-million people have been killed in the Sudanese civil war since 1983.

MAIN REBEL GROUP WON'T ATTEND BURUNDI CEASEFIRE TALKS.

BUJUMBURA: The main rebel group in Burundi, The Forces for the Defence of Democracy, says it will NOT attend the resumption of ceasefire talks with the government in Dare es Salaam in Tanzania today, saying it had not been invited on an official basis. The movement said it had asked mediators to the dialogue to send it a conventional invitation, but this had not been undertaken. The last round of talks ended eleven days ago in a deadlock between the rebels and government. More than 250-thousand people have been killed in the Burundian civil war since 1993. The conflict pits a variety of Hutu rebel groups against an army dominated by the Tutsi minority.

ETHIOPIA REJECTS OFFER TO USE ERITREA'S PORTS.

ADDIS ABABA: Land-locked Ethiopia has rejected an offer from its neighbour, Eritrea, of the use of the latter's Red Sea ports to transport food aid to drought victims in Ethiopia. Eritrea, itself facing food shortages, said this week it would allow Ethiopia to use its Assab and Masawa ports to transport food to 14-million Ethiopians facing the risk of famine next year because of the failure of crucial rains. Ethiopian officials said there was a lack of food imports coming into Ethiopia and there was no need to use Eritrea's ports. Ethiopia is already importing some food aid through the port of its neighbour Djibouti. However, the United Nations says the amount provided by the international community is inadequate.

S.A. PRESIDENT SIGNS PLEDGE TO COMBAT CHILD AND WOMEN RAPE.

JOHANNESBURG: South African President Thabo Mbeki has added his voice to the outrage caused by child and women rape in South Africa by signing a pledge to combat the scourge. After inscribing the document in Midrand north of Johannesburg, he called for as many people as possible to do the same. The pledge forms part of a 16-day, global campaign against rape. The crusade begins today. It has emerged that a total of 289 children were reported to have been raped in just one trauma centre in a rural area of northern Limpopo Province in South Africa last year.

USE OF ANTI-RETROVIRALS IN BURUNDI HAS DOUBLED.

BUJUMBURA: Health workers in Burundi say the use of anti-retroviral drugs has doubled, following a drop in prices over the past year, but that the vast majority of AIDS patients can NOT afford the drugs. They said Burundi struck a deal with Western companies in May last year to ensure access to cheap anti-AIDS drugs. The price of the drugs dropped from 90-dollars a month to less than 30-dollars. Burundi had around 400 people under treatment before the prices fell. This number has risen to about a thousand patients under present treatment. However, for Burundi this was an insignificant number. The United Nations reports that over eight percent of Burundians aged between 15 and 49 are H.I.V. positive.

U.S. TO ACCELERATE ITS ECONOMIC AID TO EGYPT.

WASHINGTON: The United States says it will try to accelerate some of its economic aid to Egypt in response to Cairo's economic difficulties. The Egyptian tourism industry, a pillar of the economy, has been hard hit by the September terrorist attacks in the United States. The attacks frightened tourists into avoiding the Middle East. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said that it was not seeking more American aid, but merely wanted the United States to be more flexible about the assistance. American aid to Egypt amounts to about two-billion dollar a year.

SIX MEN CHARGED WITH MURDER OF MOZAMBICAN JOURNALIST ON TRIAL.

MAPUTO: Six men charged with murdering Mozambican investigative journalist Carlos Cardoso have gone on trial in the country's most secure prison, watched by thousands over live state television. Human rights advocates say the case will test the independence of Mozambique's judiciary in a trial which is expected to focus on Cardoso's probes into official corruption. The November 2000 murder of Mozambique's best known journalist was condemned by human rights activists as an assault on press freedom. The killing was linked to Cardoso's investigation into the disappearance in 1996 of 14 million dollars in privatisation funds. Fingers were pointed at senior government officials and men with close links to Mozambique's President Joaquim Chissano.

U.S. PROTESTS AGAINST HARASSMENT OF ITS EMPLOYEE IN ZIMBABWE.

HARARE: The United States government has officially protested after one of its employees on an aid mission in Zimbabwe was allegedly beaten and robbed of official and personal items by ruling party militants. Washington has called the alleged incident further proof of lawlessness in Zimbabwe. The employee, a Zimbabwean citizen, and another Zimbabwean travelling with him, were allegedly beaten and suffered serious injuries. The two had been travelling with another U.S. embassy employee who is an American citizen, and a United Nations officer from Britain. The group of four were held and subjected to what the U.S. embassy called a hostile interrogation in the Melfort district, 40 kilometres east of Harare.

POVERTY HIGHLIGHTED IN SOUTH AFRICA.

JOHANNESBURG: The deteriorating situation of people living in abject poverty has been highlighted in South Africa. Observers say while the government is busy trying to come up with sustainable programmes to eradicate poverty and unemployment, children remain the most affected. The representative of the United Nations Children's Fund in South Africa, Jesper Morch, says he is happy with the work of his group in South Africa.

PURCHASE OF JET FOR SWAZI TO COME UNDER SCRUTINY.

MBABANE: The Swaziland parliament has decided to appoint a select committee to examine the merits and circumstances surrounding the controversial decision to purchase King Mswati the third a new Bombardier Global Express executive jet. The decision follows an inconclusive seven-hour debate yesterday over the 45 million dollar deal in the small kingdom's parliament. Those opposed to the acquisition say the money would be better spent on feeding the country's hungry. Swaziland is currently suffering from a drought and is also in the grip of an HIV/AIDS pandemic.

30 CHADIAN WOMEN TAKE REFUGE IN C.A.R. EMBASSY.

BANGUI: About 30 Chadian women living in the north of the Central African Republic's capital, Bangui, have taken refuge with their children in the Chadian embassy for fear of violence. Some of the women say their husbands were killed during an armed uprising against President Ange-Felix Patasse. The uprising began on the 25th of last month and was put down six days later in Bangui with the help of Libyan troops and rebels sent by the Congolese Liberation Movement. Residents of the capital have accused fighters of the Democratic Republic of Congo movement of looting, rape and other atrocities since driving Patasse's foes out of the city.

Meanwhile, the Chadian government has denied claims by a rebel movement of fierce fighting in two parts of the country last week and says these were a bid to manipulate national and international opinion. On Saturday, a movement known as the Forces of National Organisations for Alternance and Liberty in Chad, or FONALT, said its fighters had killed 116 government soldiers in separate clashes on Thursday in the east of the country. FONALT said the rebels had taken 28 prisoners and captured several vehicles. It accused government soldiers of atrocities against civilians, including razing nine villages.

TENSIONS ARE RISING IN MIDDLE EAST.

JERUSALEM: Tensions are rising in the Middle East after Friday's murder of 12 Israelis. They were shot dead outside Hebron on their way from prayers. Israel is threatening to push its Jewish settlements to the tomb of Abraham in the heart of Palestinian territory. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has accused Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of deliberately destroying the peace process.

GUINEA BISSAU'S NEW PRIME MINISTER ANNOUNCES NEW CABINET.

BISSAU: Guinea Bissau's new Prime Minister Mario Lima Pires has announced his cabinet bringing in new faces to take over the ministries of foreign affairs and defence. The new 20-member team is five fewer than in the previous government, which was dismissed by President Kumba Yala on Friday for incompetence. It is dominated by members of Yala's ruling Social Renovation Party. Yala said he had dismissed the government of prime minister Alamara Nhassehad because of the Portugese-speaking nation's current economic crisis. The president, who came to power in January 2000, said fresh parliamentary elections would be held within 90 days.

U.N. DISARMAMENT EXPERT BELIEVES HE'S MAKING PROGRESS IN IRAQ.

BAGHDAD: Chief United Nations disarmament expert Hans Blix says he believes he is making progress following a first round of talks with Iraqi officials, aimed at resuming the hunt for Iraq's suspected weapons of mass destruction programmes. Blix made the statement after emerging from around two hours of talks with Iraqi officials at the foreign ministry in Baghdad. He added that they have started discussions on the modalities of the resumption of inspections. Blix and his team returned to Iraq yesterday after a four-year absence. He says the talks will continue today.

Prepared in Johannesburg, South Africa, by Mbulelo Dlamini Maqhubu and Micel Schnehage.