KwaZulu-Natal has coughed up at least R1 million in transport costs to repatriate foreign nationals in the province to their countries of origin.vBetween 700 and 800 refugees had already been sent home, mainly to Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi, said the head of the eThekwini Municipality’s international and governance relations, Eric Apelgren.

At least 40 people drowned and about 100 are missing after a boat carrying illegal immigrants from Libya to Italy capsized, an Egyptian security official said on Monday. Forty bodies have been recovered after the boat sank shortly after leaving the port of Zuwarah, about 100km west of Tripoli, on June 7, the official said, citing a report from the Egyptian embassy in Libya.

Fourteen people, including a senator, have been charged with murder following a deadly land dispute that left at least 14 people dead in Liberia, the Solicitor General of Liberia said on Wednesday. "Senator Roland Kahn and 13 others were charged last night," Tiawon Gongloe said via telephone.

Chad accused Sudan's army of attacking a town on its eastern border on Tuesday and blamed its neighbour for Chadian rebel raids that have disrupted international aid operations to help thousands of refugees. The Chadian accusation showed tensions flaring again between the two oil-producing neighbours, who often accuse each other of supporting cross-border rebel attacks over their frontier running along Sudan's violence-torn Darfur region.

The trial of two Algerian Christian converts accused of proselytising has been postponed for a week, the head of the country's Protestant Church said on Wednesday. The prosecution is the third to be brought against Christian converts in the mostly Muslim country since a controversial law was passed in February 2006 demanding non-Muslim congregations seek permits from regional authorities.