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 (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".

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.

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."