South African police said yesterday two suspects had been arrested in a probe into violations of laws related to weapons of mass destruction (WMD). ?There were two more arrests yesterday (Wednesday) related to WMD charges,? said police spokeswoman Sally de Beer.

?One man was arrested in (the port city of) Durban and one in Johannesburg ... they will definitely appear in court but we don?t know when at this stage. The investigations are continuing,? she said. South African prosecutors on Wednesday dropped charges against a South African businessman arrested last week under laws outlawing nuclear proliferation.

South African police said in February Washington had asked for their help in investigating possible associates of Asher Karni, a former Israeli army officer accused by the US government of conspiring to export 200 US-made nuclear weapons detonators to Pakistan via South Africa. South Africa voluntarily dismantled its nuclear arms before the 1994 end of white apartheid rule ? the only nuclear-armed State to do so.

OFFICIAL VISIT

<B>Kalam all set for African safari</B>

President APJ Abdul Kalam will be the first non-African head of the State to interact with several of his counterparts during the ongoing Pan-African Parliament during his Africa tour beginning next week. The visit to Tanzania and South Africa will be more than just a ceremonial affair as the hosts have shown a keen desire to utilise the opportunity to establish contact with the UPA government. Three South African ministers ? Geraldine J Fraser-Moleketi in charge of public administration, Ivy Matsepe-Cassuburi in charge of HRD and communication and Esap Pahar, who is minister in president Thabo Mbeki?s office ? are here on the eve of the presidential visit to work out a string of MoUs and one of them, for cooperation in IT and communication has been finalised.