Yearly Archives: 2001

TWENTY-TWO passengers drowned when their minibus plunged into the River Nile after colliding with a truck on a bridge between the two parts of the Sudanese capital. Police said nine men, nine women and four children drowned, while six people, including a woman, survived. Only five people, including the two-man bus crew, had been identified […]

AT least 10 people were killed in an attack this week by Guinean helicopter gunships on the Liberian border town of Solumba, Defence Minister Daniel Chea said. Chea told reporters he had instructed his artillery units to bring down any helicopter that enters Liberian airspace. The Liberian government, he added, was also registering its protest […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday WORLD number one gold producer AngloGold posted a R132m net loss in the fourth quarter of 2000, due mainly to R700m in asset impairments reflecting a lower gold price. Operating profit rose 9% to R889m in the quarter to December 31, while headline earnings improved 1% to R430m. But the […]

GROWTH in South Africa’s broadly defined M3 money supply accelerated to 7.58% in the year to December from 6.56% in November, dampening hopes of a quick cut in rates. It slowed to 11.07% from 11.84% in November versus forecasts of a modest quickening to 12.1%. – Reuters

NIGERIAN President Olusegun Obasanjo, facing widespread criticism of the quality of his cabinet and the performance of the economy, has sacked 10 of his 49 ministers – but no key ministers in the economic and finance sectors were dropped, and political analysts said the list of nominees to replace the 10 would disappoint those who […]

JIM WOLF, Washington | Wednesday A FLAW in software that helps drive the Internet could let hackers disrupt Web operations worldwide unless corrected quickly, a US Defence Department-funded research centre said this week. Electronic intruders seizing on the newly discovered vulnerability could gain control of domain name servers (DNS), which translate easy-to-remember names – such […]

THE United Nations has appealed for $353m to provide food and other relief supplies to 13 million drought victims in five countries in the Horn of Africa. A UN official said famine had been avoided last year in the region, which has a chronic food shortage after three consecutive years of poor rains. But fresh […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Wednesday ZIMBABWES Supreme Court has delivered a stinging rebuke to President Robert Mugabe, overturning a presidential decree which sought to ban challenges against results of last year’s parliamentary election, even where corrupt or illegal practices were committed. Ruling in favour of an appeal by the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change […]

FEARS are mounting for the fate of some 200 Tanzanians, many of them wounded, who fled deadly political violence on Pemba island by boat, amid reports that a police helicopter fired on the vessels and dropped grenades on them. An opposition Member of Parliament in Pemba – part of Tanzania’s offshore state of Zanzibar – […]