Yearly Archives: 2001

Kabul | Tuesday HUNDREDS of US Marines backed by US air power were poised on Tuesday to move in for the kill on the last major pocket of Taliban resistance and the forces of terror suspect Osama bin Laden. The US move came as American warplanes and troops of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance struggled for […]

OLA AWONIYI, Abuja | Thursday THE Nigerian government on Wednesday sold a $1,3-billion 51% majority stake in its telecoms firm Nitel to a consortium led by a subsidiary of Portugal Telecom. Sealing Africa’s largest ever privatisation, Vice President Atiku Abubakar and government officials signed a series of documents with the Portuguese-led group, International Investors of […]

IVORIAN police on Wednesday released 46 employees of a quasi-public company after detaining them overnight for staging a sit-in to demand the immediate payment of nine months’ salary arrears. Youan Gala Bi, general secretary of the trade union of Motoragri, a joint venture between the Ivorian government and the private sector, said that he and […]

LUKE HARDING near Mazar-i-Sharif, NICHOLAS WATT, BRIAN WHITAKER and agencies | Friday MULLAH Faizal, the most senior Taliban leader left in northern Afghanistan, swept out of the beleaguered city of Kunduz on Wednesday night in a convoy of mud-encrusted battle cruisers crammed with 50 heavily armed Taliban fighters. He arrived at 10pm for talks with […]

THE Nigerian government said Wednesday it signed a major deepwater oil production sharing accord with several foreign companies. The agreement is the first to be signed between state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and oil prospecting companies since Nigeria’s deepwater concessions were allocated last year via an open bid system, it said. The production sharing accord […]

SIAMESE twins were born in the Port Elizabeth provincial hospital on Wednesday, SABC television news reported. The public broadcaster said the twins were flown to Cape Town for further examination. They are joined at the waist, and a Livingstone hospital paediatrician was quoted saying the twins have separate organs. The exact cause of this kind […]

TWO policemen from the Potchefstroom Dog Unit were killed in a hit-and-run accident on Tuesday night, North West police said. Superintendent Louis Jacobs said the two men were returning from work around 8pm when they stopped on the Mooi Bank Road where a couple was involved in an argument. A speeding vehicle hit both of […]

AN exhibition featuring waxwork figures of historical South African leaders is on display at Ceasars Gauteng on the East Rand. The Ubunye (which means ”unity” in Nguni) Exhibition was a joint venture between Global Resorts SA and the Las Vegas-based Park Place Entertainment Corporation. ”The exhibition features panel displays, artefacts pertaining to the historic processes […]

FRANCOIS-XAVIER HARISPE, Kabul | Monday ANIS, the first newspaper to be published in Kabul since the Taliban fled the city, was due on the streets on Monday sporting a picture no one would have dared publish during the Islamic regime’s five-year strict rule –women without their traditional veils. The photograph was taken during a demonstration […]

THE Truth and Reconciliation Commission will dissolve at the end of March next year, chief executive Martin Coetzee said on Wednesday. He said the head office in Cape Town would complete its work late in December, but a few staffers would remain to finalise the report. President Thabo Mbeki earlier this month issued a proclamation […]