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Johannesburg, SOUTH AFRICA Car hijackers shot dead the father of one of South Africa's top soccer stars in the latest high-profile crime to stun South Africans, police said on 28 August. Four gunmen attacked Alkiem Khumalo, once a soccer celebrity in his own right whose superstar son Doctor Khumalo now plays in the United States, outside his Soweto home late. They left him gravely wounded and made off with his Volkswagen Jetta car. Khumalo, who was known to his fans as "Pro" in the 1960s and 70s, was rushed to hospital in the sprawling and violent black township outside Johannesburg, but died from his wounds.

Lagos, NIGERIA A Nigerian human rights group said on 28 August that four members of a recently banned university union had been arrested. "The Constitutional Rights Project (CRP) believes that Mr William Istafanus, Mr Elisha Shamay, Mr O.K. Likkason and Mr Jerome Egurugbe were arrested because of their role in the ongoing ASUU (Academic Staff Union of Universities) strike," the group said in a statement. The CRP said the four were arrested on 26 August at the northeastern Tafawa Balewa University.

Brazzaville, CONGO Congo's President Pascal Lissouba on 27 August named former Foreign Minister Charles David Ganao as Prime Minister to head a government which will run the country until presidential elections next year. A presidential decree announced the appointment of Ganao, 68, who was Foreign Minister in the 1970s under the Marxist-Leninist rule of President Marien Ngouabi. Outgoing Prime Minister Jacques Joachim Yhombi-Opango presented his government's resignation on 23 August and on 27 August President Lissouba appointed him as head of his Presidential Movement and as his campaign manager for elections next year.

Harare, ZIMBABWE Thousands of Zimbabwean civil servants marched in the capital Harare on 28 August in defiance of government statements dismissing them over their strike, which has crippled essential social services. Police kept a low profile, mostly around a park where the marchers numbering about 5,000 gathered earlier to hear speeches from their leaders before moving into the city centre. The civil servants are demanding increases of 30 to 60 per cent, saying their salaries have not kept up with annual inflation averaging 22 per cent over the past two years.

Cairo, EGYPT Egyptian police have arrested and charged with negligence a doctor who circumcised a 14-year-old girl who later died, security sources said on 26 August. They said police picked up Dr Rabie Ibrahim Mahgoub on 25 August at a friend's house where he had been hiding since circumcising Amina Abdelhamid Mohammed the day before. Government newspapers said the girl died of haemorrhage. Amina's father, who earlier told police he took his daughter to a private hospital, now says the doctor circumcised Amina at home for a fee of 20 pounds ($6), sources said. Female circumcision involves the removal of some or all of the external genitalia. Some human rights activists prefer to call the practice female genital mutilation for the severe form it often takes. Side effects include haemorrhage, shock and sexual dysfunction.

Cape town, SOUTH AFRICA 5 September. Most South Africans are delighted that divorced President Nelson Mandela has taken a live-in lover, but Archbishop Desmond Tutu is among those who think he ought to marry his elegant Mozambican sweetheart. For the past year, Mandela tried to keep the affair secret, sometimes meeting his love in remote game lodges on the border between their countries. But on his boss's orders, spokesman Parks Mankahlana proved high society gossips right when he confirmed that Mandela, 78, and Mozambique's former first lady Graca Machel, 50, planned to live together for half of every month. Public reaction was immediatley positive. But church leaders including Tutu, the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and retired head of the Anglican Church in Southern Africa, have expressed reservations.

Antananarivo, MADAGASCAR Madagascar's President Albert Zafy said on 5 September he would step down from the post after the constitutional court confirmed his impeachment and ordered the prime minister to take over until an election. In an address to the nation, President Zafy said he would step down on October 10 but he hit out at the head of the National Assembly, Mr Richard Andriamanjato, and the 99 deputies who voted for impeachment. President Zafy referred to the assassination in February 1975 of Colonel Richard Ratsimandrava after only six days as president and said that like him, he was the victim of a political clique opposed to his policies.

Blantyre, MALAWI Malawi's most powerful opposition leader was freed on bail of $1,300 on 5 September after being charged in court with plotting to kill three cabinet ministers last year, officials said. John Tembo, who is second only to the country's frail former president Kamuzu Banda in the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and effectively leads it, did not plead to the charge during a court hearing in the judge's chambers on 4 September night. Prison officials said they were reluctant to release him at night for security reasons and he was freed early on 5 September. Tembo and his niece, Banda's companion Cecilia Kadzamira - who also f'aces a charge of plotting the murders - are alleged to have hired four men to carry out the assassination between June and October 1995.

Harare, ZIMBABWE The Zimbabwean government has criticised the South African mainstream media for churning out what it called "malicious" reports on Zimbabwe and its leader, President Robert Mugabe. "My ministry is aware of negative publicity on Zimbabwe emanating from South Africa and to a lesser extent from other quarters," Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Nicholas Goche told Parliament on 4 Septemeber night. "The negative publicity ranges from personal attacks against the person of ... the president to generalised negative adverse comments regarding the economic and political environment in Zimbabwe."

Harare, ZIMBABWE Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe left for an official state visit to the Caribbean island of Jamaica on 4 September night, local media reports said. The four-day visit is in response to a long-standing invitation to Mugabe dating back to 1980 during the era of former premier Michael Manley, according to the Zimbabwean foreign ministry.

Beijing, CHINA China's most influential official newspaper likened South African support for rival Taiwan on 5 September to outsiders backing South Africa's partition into white and black homelands. People's Daily, the ruling Communist Party's newspaper, also criticized South African President Nelson Mandela, without naming him, for saying it would be immoral for Pretoria to sever diplomatic relations with Taiwan. The commentary show China's position.

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