Johannesburg - A South African soldier was killed and another seriously injured in an attack by gunmen on their unit in the conflict-hit western Sudanese province of Darfur, the South African defence department said Thursday.

The troops were about 3 kilometres from their base at Kutum in the north of the province on Wednesday when unknown gunmen approached them at a water point and opened fire, defence forces spokesman Brigadier General Kwena Mangope told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa in Johannesburg.

Johannesburg - The number of deaths from a new Lassa-type virus has risen to four in South Africa, doctors confirmed to state radio Wednesday.

Cape Town, Oct 27 : The southern Cape town of South Africa has been singled out by an anthropologist as the most likely birthplace of modern humans - thanks, at least partly, to its abundance of fish.

According to a report in The Times, the anthropologist in question is Dr Curtis Marean, who presented his findings earlier this month at the Nobel Conference in Minnesota in the US.

Rich pickings of fleshy roots and bulbs, courtesy of the juicy Cape floral kingdom, are another crucial reason why mankind finally progressed past grunting to arithmetic and outboard motors, according to Dr Marean.

Fossil evidence of Homo sapiens has been found at several sites across Africa, including two 195000-year-old skulls in Ethiopia.

Washington, Oct 25: With the number of HIV/AIDS cases increasing in South Africa, health workers have now resorted to one of the most popular technology to make people aware of the virus and the disease- text messaging.

Health workers have launched an ambitious text messaging campaign, which will inform millions of South Africans daily about HIV/AIDS counseling services and testing centers throughout the country.

The campaign is titled, Project Masiluleke, which means "hope" and "warm counsel" in the South Africa''s major language, Zulu.

Johannesburg  - South Africans are splitting their sides over a video showing a po-faced politician disappearing into thin air with a loud crack when his chair broke during a TV interview.

The chairman of parliament's portfolio committee on finance, Nhlanhla Nene, was giving an interview to SABC public television on the morning of Finance Minister Trevor Manuel's budget policy statement Tuesday when the mishap occurred.

Johannesburg - The split in South Africa's ruling African National Congress took an increasingly nasty turn Thursday, with supporters of the biggest faction loyal to party leader Jacob Zuma threatening to kill dissidents planning to form a rival party.

A group of Zuma supporters demonstrated outside a hall in a township south of Johannesburg where former ANC chairman and splinter faction leader Mosiuoa Lekota was due to address a rally.

"Kill Shilowa, kill Lekota," they were quoted by SAPA news agency as chanting.