"Brothers in arms - Israel's secret pact with Pretoria"

Sailing to Punt
The long-held belief that the Ancient Egyptians did not tend to travel long distances by sea because of poor naval technology proved fallacious last week when timbers, rigging and cedar planks were unearthed in the ancient Red Sea port of Marsa Gawasis, 23 kilometres south of Port Safaga.

Brothers in arms - Israel's secret pact with Pretoria
During the second world war the future South African prime minister John Vorster was interned as a Nazi sympathiser. Three decades later he was being feted in Jerusalem. In the second part of his remarkable special report, Chris McGreal investigates the clandestine alliance between Israel and the apartheid regime, cemented with the ultimate gift of friendship - A-bomb technology.

Bayer earns $379m from Kenyan diabetes drug
Bacteria harvested from Kenya are being used by a global pharmaceutical company to manufacture a multi-million dollar diabetes drug, although the country is not making a shilling from the entire enterprise, a dossier prepared by a respectable American think-tank says.

Rich-poor divide will challenge president-elect of Haiti
President-elect Rene Preval has begun meeting rivals to build a parliament coalition as he embarks on an effort to patch deep divides between the country's small elite and the poor majority who propelled him to office.

Aristide may go home - Mbeki
President Thabo Mbeki said on Sunday that former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide may be able to return home after consultation with Haiti's new president.

Militants threaten tankers as hostages seized on oil barge
Nigeria is facing a serious escalation in the conflict that has hit the oil-rich but poverty-stricken Niger Delta region, as rebels threatened yesterday to blow up offshore tankers, a day after seizing nine foreign hostages, including a British man.

Terror threat: The great deception

Iran demands Britain leave Basra