SOUTH AFRICA

CAPE TOWN - The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) insists that Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence came to "incorrect conclusions" in its report on the "Browse Mole" report. The NPA's response to the committee follows the release of a report accusing the Scorpions of producing "Browse Mole" illegally and in contravention of their mandate. The report, released on February 26 by the committee, says the Scorpions fell prey to information peddlars, making use of informants and private intelligence companies to compile the document. Officially called the "Special 'Browse' Mole Consolidated Report", the 18-page top-secret document was leaked into the public domain in 2007.

JOHANNESBURG - A South African state lawyer accuses African National Congress (ANC) leader Jacob Zuma in court of trying to delay justice through his attempt to block the use of seized documents at his upcoming corruption trial. The trial, due to start in August, could ruin Zuma's hopes of succeeding President Thabo Mbeki in 2009. The head of the ruling ANC is accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes over an arms deal.

CAPE TOWN - The tobacco industry warns that it may take to the courts if new tobacco control legislation is pushed through without proper consultation. Tobacco industry of South Africa CE, Francois van der Merwe says that there is no need to rush the Bill and says that claims by the Department of Health that there has been consultation with the industry is a "blatant effort to mislead the committee, and paint a picture which is not true."

JOHANNESBURG - The ANC's National Working Committee initiates a major review of the country's education system. The committee recognises education as a central pillar of economic growth and in the fight against poverty. This comes after the decision taken at the Polokwane conference that education must be at the centreof the ANC's social transformation over the next five years.

AFRICA

MALABO - A British mercenary admits in an interview that he plotted to oust Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo in 2004 but the "swashbuckling" scheme failed. Speaking in prison in the capital of the oil-producing African country, former British army officer Simon Mann says he should have puled the plug on the coup plot and is now deeply sorry. The plot trained an international media spotlight on Mann, the heir to a brewing fortune who attended Britain's exclusive school Eton - and the scramble for access to Africa's rich offshore oilfields.

WORLD

TIBET - Tibetan refugees protest across the world to mark the forty-ninth anniversary of an uprising against Chinese rule and to press their demand for independence ahead of the Beijing Olympics. In Greece, a dozen Tibetans light a torch outside Olympia, the site of the ancient Olympic Games, to launch a global torch relay which they hope will be taken to more than 20 countries and end at Tibet's border just as the Beijing Olympics start on August 8. As the Olympics approach, Tibetans are trying to reinvigorate their freedom movement and protest against what they see as China's illegal occupation of their homeland.

NEW YORK - Responding to spiking food prices, the World Bank says that it will nearly double the amount in loans made to help boost agricultural production in Africa to $700-million from $420-million. World Bank lending for agriculture has averaged some $500-million in coming years, owing to record high prices for energy and agricultural commodities that have had a damaging effect on developing nations, particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa.

WASHINGTON - In a speech to the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, US President George W Bush stresses taht the tiem for debating Doha is over, and leaders must begin making the tough choices that will aloow the negotiations to advance. Negotiators from the World Trade Organisation's 151 member States have been hoping to secure enough consensus to bring trade ministers together in April for the final horsetrading that would enable a new world trade agreement by the end of 2008.