El Salvador officials said on Thursday they were excavating graves discovered at the house of a former police officer that contained as many as 40 bodies, most of them believed to be women.

A long, tough road towards forgiveness lies ahead for a Kariega family after the high court in Gqeberha found a father not guilty of raping his daughter following her admission in court that she lied about the alleged abuse.

Microsoft Corp is pulling the plug on its once omnipresent browser, Internet Explorer, next year as it prepares to battle market leader Chrome with its slicker Edge browser.

Japan is set to expand a state of emergency to cover the southern island of Okinawa on Friday, just as it approved two more novel coronavirus vaccines to speed up its lagging inoculation campaign.

The high court in Pietermaritzburg is on Friday expected to hear an application by two of the late Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini's daughters in which they seek to stop the coronation of Prince Misuzulu as king of the Zulu nation.

The street vendor who sold high-flying ANC officials chicken feet while on the campaign trail in Ennerdale, south of Johannesburg, says she was paid R30 for her stock.

Free State MEC has vowed to drag embattled Mangaung Metro municipal manager Tankiso Mea to court next week and force him to take leave while his alleged maladministration is being investigated.

The African Union on Thursday called for civilian and military leaders in Chad to share power until elections can be organised following the death of President Idriss Deby and subsequent military takeover last month.

Ethiopia's twice-delayed national and regional elections will now take place on June 21, but security and logistical problems will delay voting still further in some areas, organisers said on Thursday.

Sixteen civilians were killed and others injured in northern Mali when their vehicle struck an explosive device, an army spokesman said on Thursday.

The Hawks have arrested a woman in Fouriesburg, in the Free State, who allegedly set up a "tollgate", charging car thieves and illegal immigrants to use her property to cross between SA and Lesotho.

Zimbabwe has banned maize imports with immediate effect, the country's agricultural marketing authority said on Thursday, citing an expected big harvest of the staple crop this year.

Driven by passion and motivated by justice, veteran activist Peter Tatchell says LGBT+ equality remains elusive despite his 50-year campaign for gay rights in Britain and beyond.

SA's third wave could be somewhat different compared to other countries, says Prof Salim Abdool Karim.

Do you think these changes will make TikTok a safer place?

The US government on Thursday forecast an above-normal 2021 Atlantic hurricane season, which is already off to an early start with a storm expected to form off Bermuda this week.

US President Joe Biden on Thursday signed into law the Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act that overwhelmingly passed Congress in a rare show of bipartisanship following a spate of high-profile attacks on Asian Americans in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The first ships docked at Kenya's deep water Lamu Port on Thursday as the country looks to open a new transport corridor linking its vast northern region and neighbouring nations to the sea.

Kenya's health ministry said it is in talks with vaccine manufacturers such as Johnson and Johnson as it seeks alternatives to the AstraZeneca Covid-19 shot after shipment delays of the drug from India.

Beam, a gay sex worker, used to go to a "chemsex" party about once a month before the coronavirus pandemic shut Thailand's bars and clubs. But since then, the drug-fuelled gatherings have become much more frequent.

Insurer Old Mutual said on Friday it had paid out R2.7 billion ($192.94 million) worth of Covid-19 related death claims in the first quarter of the year, leaving around 1.3 billion rand in its reserves set aside to help it manage the pandemic.

The Hawks found illegal hunting rifles, a 9mm pistol, rifle barrels, handgun ammunition, home-made silencers and improvised active home-made explosive devices at the business premises.

Experts say aiming for the moving target of Covid-19 herd immunity may be unrealistic, potentially requiring an annual global booster vaccine to fend off emerging variants.

Leaders of the world's largest economies will adopt on Friday a declaration recommending voluntary actions to boost Covid-19 vaccine production, snubbing a push from the US and other nations on patent waivers, the final text shows.

Drugmakers are to announce on Friday they will provide large new supplies of at-cost Covid-19 vaccines to poor nations this year to try to redress the global imbalance, an EU official familiar with the matter said.

In 'Vrye Weekblad' this week: What dark secrets are wrapped up in the past of an ex-chief of military intelligence's history in Umkhonto we Sizwe?

The murder rate showed a decrease during the start of Covid-19 lockdown, but increased slightly when restrictions were relaxed from January this year.

Covid-19 live updates.

An Egyptian-mediated truce between Israel and Hamas began on Friday, but Hamas warned it still had its "hands on the trigger" and demanded Israel end the violence in Jerusalem and address the damages in Gaza Strip after the worst fighting in years.

SA recorded 3,641 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, but it was the positivity rate of higher than 9% that will be of growing concern.