Johannesburg/Luanda - Angolan opposition parties on Saturday, the second and last day of the country's national elections, expressed misgivings about the running of the polls in the capital city Luanda and were considering calling for a new vote.

According to election observers the opening of polling places was delayed by several hours on Friday in the capital, where 20 per cent of country's 8.3 million registered voters live.

The country's first national election in 16 years though praised by the head of the European Union observer team for its "peaceful manner" was nevertheless marked by a lack of preparedness.

Johannesburg/Luanda - Angolans were going to the polls Friday in the first national election in the war-scarred country in 16 years. President Eduardo dos Santos' party was expected to win easily.

Dos Santos, 68, who has maintained a tight grip on power for 29 years, had repeatedly delayed parliamentary and presidential elections on the grounds that the country's ruined infrastructure made them unfeasible.

The elections to the 220-seat National Assembly on Friday and Saturday, while deemed unlikely to dent the majority of dos Santos' MPLA (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola), are seen as a dry run for presidential elections scheduled for next year.

Johannesburg - Africa's biggest air traffic hub, OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, opened a new terminal Wednesday as part of a major upgrade scheduled for completion by the 2010 football World Cup.

The 2.3-billion-rand central terminal is two-and-a-half times the size of the current international arrivals hall.

A new international departures hall is slated for completion in December, a new retail centre for April 2009 and a new baggage management system for December 2009.

Lusaka/Johannesburg - Over 14 African heads of state, including Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, were expected to attend the funeral in Zambia Wednesday of late president Levy Mwanawasa.

Mwanawasa, dubbed Mr Integrity for his anti-corruption crusade and his outspokenness on Mugabe's authoritarian rule, died in a Paris hospital two weeks ago at the age of 59 of the effects of a massive stroke. He would have turned 60 on Wednesday.

Johannesburg/Maputo  - At least 45 people were known to have died in three days of storms-fanned wildfires in South Africa, Swaziland, Mozambique, authorities and media reports said Tuesday.

At least 40 people were killed and dozens injured in South Africa as fires destroyed dozens of homes and tens of thousands of hectares of bush, forest and farmland across three provinces.

Johannesburg  - The education foundation of former South African president Nelson Mandela obtained a 25-per-cent share in Oxford University Press (OUP), the publishing arm of the prestigious British university, on Tuesday.

OUP's transfer of 25.1 per cent of its shares to the Mandela Rhodes Foundation (MRF) would fund third-level scholarships for at least 18 scholars over the next five years as well as secure the foundation's finances in the years to come, the foundation and OUP said in a press release.

The transaction is what is called in South Africa a black economic empowerment (BEE) deal, according to which companies are encouraged to hand over a stake in their business to the historically disadvantaged black majority.