Gaborone (Botswana), Jan 12 : Indian Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari left for home after wrapping up his three-day visit to Botswana Monday night.

Ansari reached Gaborone Saturday and held delegation level talks with his host, Botswana Vice President Momfati Merafhe, a former army officer who got military training in India.

They signed two agreements in agriculture and education.

Ansari's engagements on the last day of his seven-day African trip was a tour of the facilities of the Diamond Trading Co and addressing the Indian community.(IANS)

Gaborone (Botswana), Jan 11 : Indian Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari Monday wrapped up his three-day visit to Botswana Monday evening with the same message he carried to other African countries - India will not be "prescriptive" while providing assistance.

On the last day of his Africa tour, Ansari called on Botswana President Seretse Khama Ian Khama, who cut short his leave as a "special gesture" for an unscheduled meeting with the Indian leader.

Gaborone (Botwana), Jan. 11 : Vice-President Mohammad Hamid Ansari called on the President of Botswana, Lt. Gen. Khama Ian Khama, at the Presidential Palace here on Monday.

Officials accompanying the Vice-President on his visit to Botswana; described his 45-minute call on the President of Botswana as "constructive, positive and friendly".

Kasane (Botswana), Jan 11 : If Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari has his way, Indian filmmakers will have another exotic film destination - Botswana.

Enraptured by the beautiful and wild environs of the Chobe National Park, Ansari told his host, Botswana Vice President Momfati Merafhe, Sunday night that he will certainly lobby for the southern African country with his domestic film industry.

"India boasts the largest film production in the world, which specialises in the most beautiful of locations.

Gaborone (Botswana), Jan 10 - India has extended a line of credit of $20 million and a grant of $8 million to the southern African state of Botswana, a country often held up as a model of good governance in Africa and whose diamond resource is eyed by the world.

Indian Vice President Mohammed Hamid Ansari, who arrived in Gaborene Saturday on the last leg of his tri-nation African trip, held talks with his counterpart Momfati Merafhe before announced that a grant of $8 million for projects in the social sector as well as $20 million line of credit for development of infrastructure projects.

Gaborone (Botswana), Jan. 10 : India and Botswana on Saturday signed two Memorandum of Understanding to boost bilateral cooperation in the fields of agriculture and education. The two sides also agreed to set up a Joint Working Group (JWG) to review the progress in these agreements and ensure they were implemented.

Briefing Indian media persons accompanying Vice-President Mohammad Hamid Ansari on his three-day trip to Botswana, Secretary (West) in the Ministry of External Affairs Vivek Katju said: The Botswana side expressed great gratitude for the assistance that Botswana has received from us (India) in efforts of capacity building, including training of their defence forces."

Gaborone (Botswana), Jan. 9 : Vice-President Mohammmad Hamid Ansari arrived in Botswana capital Gaborone this afternoon on a three-day official visit.

Botswana Vice-President Mompati Merafhe and his wife received Vice-President Ansari alongwith other dignitaries at the Sir Sereste Khama International Airport here.

The visiting Indian delegation was accorded a traditional Botswanian welcome with tribal dancers putting up a performance on the airport tarmac. The Vice-President and Mrs. Ansari were introduced to key

ministers and officials before departing from the airport. Vice-President Ansari and his entourage headed straight for the Hotel Walmont Ambassador soon after arrival, and will be briefed by High

Gaborone, Jan 9 : On the last leg of his three-nation African tour, Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari arrived in Botswana Saturday, hoping to increase direct access to the country's famed uncut diamonds for the Indian diamond industry.

The vice president's special aircraft landed at Seretse Khama airport in the Botswana capital Gaborone at about 11.45 a. m. He had started on his trip Jan 5 in Zambia, before reaching Malawi Jan 7.

He was received at the airport by Vice President Mompati Merafhe and a group of tribal dancers in their traditional finery. The vice president and his wife Salma Ansari were quite taken in with the dancers, as they watched them perform nimbly near the tarmac.

Johannesburg  - Botswana's President Ian Khama was sworn in for a second term Tuesday following his Botswana Democratic Party's (BDP's) landslide victory in last week's general elections.

The 56-year-old former vice-president had already been president for a year and a half before the October 16 election, having taken over last year from ex-leader Festus Mogae when he retired.

Johannesburg/Gaborone - People in Botswana, the world's biggest producer of diamonds by value, began making their way to the polls Friday to elect a new parliament against the backdrop of recession.

A little over 700,000 people out of some 1.8 million in the vast southern African desert nation are registered to elect 57 members of the National Assembly.

Voting was scheduled to take place between 6 a. m. (0400 GMT) and 7 p. m. (1700 GMT) with the results expected over the weekend. Around 2,000 Batswana living overseas already voted on October 3.

Gaborone  - Before entering the world's largest diamond sorting facility in Gaborone, you have to check your chewing gum at the door - lest you be tempted to stud it with a stone.

You may also be asked to turn out your pockets, show the soles of your shoes and empty out your pen to prove you aren't concealing a gem.

But routine searches are a thing of the past at the Diamond Trading Company Botswana (DTCB), a joint venture between the government of Botswana, the world's largest diamond producer, and Debswana - itself a joint venture between the government and mining giant de Beers.

Instead of hands, there are 100 security cameras constantly scanning workers and visitors for sticky fingers.

Gaborone  - There's a story supporters of Botswana's President Ian Khama tell, which, while maybe embellished a little, gives a flavour of his leadership style,

The story goes that Khama arrived unannounced one day in a rural hospital on one of his regular spot check-ups on service delivery.

Gaborone  - Precious Ramotswe is "traditionally built" and anything but glamorous. She drives a rattle-trap white van, her favourite dish is boiled pumpkin, and her boyfriend is a middle-aged mechanic.

Sipping redbush tea behind an old typewriter in her simple office, Mma Ramotse finds philandering husbands, missing children, and solutions to often not very overwhelming domestic problems.

Gaborone  - Forty-three years ago, when Botswana achieved independence from Britain in 1966, the vast desert country had 8 kilometres of paved road, a handful of schools and no university.

Within 25 years, the country had 4,200 kilometres of tarred roads and a virtually fee-free university boasting some of the best research facilities in southern Africa.

The secret? Diamonds.

Botswana say it has rained on every independence day celebration in their country and that rain is a sign of luck. It must have bucketed down on September 30, 1966 because within a year Botswana had struck diamonds.

Gaborone  - Botswana's President Ian Khama said Monday he was open to debating his immunity from prosecution, which a disaffected faction of his own party is challenging in court, and warned Zimbabwe's new government was "skating on thin ice."

In an exclusive interview with the German Press Agency dpa three weeks before his first electoral test, Khama said: "It is, as a democracy, for me, a bit uncomfortable that you may find that the impression is given that the president can almost do anything and doesn't answer for it."

Gaborone  - Botswana's President Ian Khama on Monday declared himself "a bit uncomfortable" with the principle of presidential immunity that a disaffected faction of his party is challenging in court.

In an exclusive interview with the German Press Agency dpa three weeks before his first electoral test, Khama said: "Whether they say the president should be above the law is something which I would welcome as a debate."

Johannesburg - The African Development Bank (AfDB) said Thursday it had approved a loan of 1.5 billion dollars for Botswana, the biggest loan ever by the bank.

Diamond-rich Botswana, usually hailed as a model of sound governance and economic management, is reeling from the effect of falling demand for its gems triggered by the global recession.

The loan will go towards patching up the shortfall in the government's 2009/2010 budget, the Tunis-based bank said in a statement.

New Delhi, Nov 23 : As part of enhance engagement of the Indian Armed Forces with the militaries of the Indian Ocean region and other prominent military powers, Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor today left for a week-long visit to South Africa and Botswana.

India and South Africa have seen enhanced military cooperation especially during the past decade including the fields of military training and procurement of military hardware.