FOUR Palestinians were shot dead on Friday in fighting with Israeli troops in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, bringing the death toll in nine days of violence to at least 73. Two Palestinians were killed in an exchange of fire between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen near the West Bank city of Nablus, medical […]

AFP, Port Elizabeth | Saturday RACIAL biases and divisions within South Africa’s research community are hampering the country’s battle against Aids, say speakers at a conference examining the demographic impact of the disease. “The research community is predominantly white, the government is predominantly black,” University of Stellenbosch professor Simon Bekker told delegates. “This may cause […]

EMSIE FERREIRA AND OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Saturday THE leader of the Muslim vigilante group Pagad has been charged with terrorism for allegedly orchestrating a spate of bombings in outlying areas of Cape Town in 1997 and 1998. State prosecutor Willie Viljoen said Abdus-Salaam Ebrahim stands accused of ordering fellow members of Pagad to […]

AFP, Geneva | Saturday THE war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is heading for a humanitarian catastrophe, the World Food Program (WFP) has warned. Some 16 million people, or about one-third of the population, do not have enough to eat. “Thousands of lives are at stake,” said WFP’s Geneva spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume, adding that humanitarian […]

JEREMY LOVELL, Cape Town | Friday A CONFIDENTIAL defence department report has painted a grim picture of decrepit machinery and shortages of ammunition and fuel in South Africa’s armed forces – even as the country sets out to spend R30bn rand on ships and aircraft from Europe. The report says a lack of funds means […]

SOUTH African information technology group Dimension Data’s US division has entered a deal to deliver fully managed Web hosting to businesses in the northeast of the United States jointly with BandwidthCenter. BandwidthCenter Strategic Planning Vice President Pamela Mercanti said the deal was worth around $250m to Didata over the next 18 months. She said this […]

GOLD Fields chairman and chief executive Chris Thompson is to meet with the South African government in a bid to resurrect the failed merger with Canada’s Franco-Nevada Mining Corp. Gold Fields and Canada’s Franco-Nevada stunned the mining world in June when they unveiled a $3.7bn all-stock deal to create the world’s third-largest gold producer with […]

PROSPECTOR Mount Grace Resources NL has agreed with South Africa’s Mintek to build a pilot plant for producing magnesium in Australia’s Northern Territory. Mount Grace is to pay Mintek, South Africa’s government-backed minerals research group, up to A$2m to help fund construction of a 1.5 megawatt plant and for a licence to use Mintek’s continuous […]

THE man in charge of organising all-party talks in war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo, former Botswanan president Sir Ketumile Masire, has expressed increasing pessimism about his chances of success, saying the international community was not doing enough to support him. Congolese President Laurent Kabila refuses to work with Masire, who is now looking for […]

HOWARD BARRELL, Cape Town | Friday PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki believes the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is part of a conspiracy to promote the view that HIV causes Aids. Mbeki also thinks that the CIA is working covertly alongside the big US pharmaceutical manufacturers to undermine him because, by questioning the link between HIV […]