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/ 17 May 2000

German hostage still critical in Philippines

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Jolo | Wednesday 8.50am. GOVERNMENT negotiators are expected to arrive on the southern Philippines island of Jolo on Wednesday to resume talks with Moslem rebels holding 21 hostages, including two South Africans. Journalists who saw the hostages on Tuesday said ailing German housewife Renate Wallert, one of the captives, is very weak and […]

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/ 17 May 2000

More UN troops freed in S Leone

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Freetown | Wednesday 8.50am. NINETY-three exhausted Zambian and Kenyan UN peacekeepers, held hostage for two weeks in the bush by rebels in Sierra Leone, have flown back to the government-controlled capital of Freetown. Wearing a ragged array of uniforms and some shod in flip-flop sandals, they landed at Freetown’s Lungi airport on Tuesday […]

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/ 17 May 2000

Stronger dollar shakes up gold

OWN CORRESPONDENT, London | Wednesday 2.00pm. GOLD prices were seen extending losses after overnight falls sparked by the US interest rate rise of 50 basis points. ”The dollar strengthened on the back of higher interest rates, so producing-countries currencies weakened and are putting pressure on gold,” said one European trader said. In the short term, […]

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/ 16 May 2000

FORMER JOURNALIST ADMITS TO INCITING GENOCIDE

ITALO-BELGIAN former journalist Georges Omar Ruggiu, 44, has pleaded guilty in a UN court in Arusha, Tanzania, to having used the airwaves to incite the 1994 genocide that claimed up to 800000 lives in Rwanda. Ruggiu is the only non-Rwandan to appear before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. He “admitted having directly and publicly […]

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/ 16 May 2000

FIRST TRANSNATIONAL PARK OPENED

A VAST game reserve spanning Botswana and South Africa became Africa’s first official transfrontier park on Friday after the presidents of the two countries opened the conservation zone. President Thabo Mbeki and his Botswanan counterpart Festus Mogae inaugurated the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park at a ceremony attended by about 500 people at the park’s southern Twee […]

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/ 16 May 2000

Fair elections possible in Zim – McKinnon

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Tuesday 5.15pm. COMMONWEALTH chief Don McKinnon said free and fair elections in Zimbabwe are possible, after talks with President Robert Mugabe on Tuesday. “I believe it is possible to have a free election,” Secretary General McKinnon said after the hour-long meeting at Mugabe’s State House office in Harare. “There are concerns […]

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/ 16 May 2000

COMESA TO MEET WEDNESDAY

LEADERS from eastern and southern Africa meet in Mauritius on Wednesday to discuss ambitious plans for economic integration which are threatened by conflicts across the continent. Heads of state from members of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa will hold a two-day summit to discuss plans to create a free trade zone from […]

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/ 16 May 2000

Coca-Cola pours $200m into SA

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Tuesday 12.30pm. SOFT drink giant Coca-Cola is to invest $200-million in South Africa. Chairman Douglas Daft announced in Pretoria on Tuesday that this will form part of a billion dollars the company is investing in Africa as a whole over the next three years. “We are very optimistic about this company’s […]

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/ 16 May 2000

ANGLO SINKS R700m INTO N CAPE MINE

ANGLO American announced on Tuesday an investment of R700-million at the Black Mountain Mine located at Aggeneys in the Northern Cape. Anglo purchased the mine from Goldfields and Phelps Dodge in July 1998. The major element of the expansion project will be the sinking and equipping of a new vertical shaft together with associated underground […]