OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Tuesday MUSLIM vigilante group Pagad’s shadowy G-Force core has been described by police as a “golden thread” running through various acts of terror – including the fatal bombing of Cape Town’s Planet Hollywood – in the Western Cape in the past two years. Police investigating the August 1998 bombing of […]

BURUNDI army and rebel groups have accused each other of launching major offensives in the run-up to ceasefire talks later this month. ”The army is launching attacks to try to recover ground before direct negotiations start,” rebel spokesman Jerome Ndiho said. ”They are also killing civilians, to scare people so they don’t shelter or give […]

A GUINEAN court has sentenced opposition leader Alpha Conde to five years in prison with hard labour on charges ranging from illegal deployment of armed forces to threatening the security of the state. Thirty-three of Conde’s 43 co-accused, many of them military personnel, were acquitted. The remaining 10 were given sentences of between 18 months […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Delmas | Tuesday THE 32-year-old woman charged with having a 16-year-long sexual relationship with her brother has married her childhood sweetheart – by the same magistrate presiding over the incest case. Heibrecht ”Breggie” Fedder, who is alleged to have been pregnant at least 10 times by her brother, was married in a simple […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Vienna | Monday OPEC ministers have agreed to raise oil supplies by 800 000 barrels a day in a bid to tame runaway crude oil prices and avert a consumer scare over fuel costs – but it could be months before prices ease. The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed to lift […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT and REUTERS, Harare | Monday RELATIVES of three people killed and one who was allegedly assaulted in the run-up to Zimbabwe’s elections have filed a $400m lawsuit against President Robert Mugabe in the United States. The lawsuit accusing Mugabe of human rights abuses was filed in US District Court in Manhattan on behalf […]

NDIVHUWO MUSETHA and JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Johannesburg | Sunday PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki is expected to announce the axing of two provincial premiers as well as a major cabinet reshuffle when he returns to South Africa from the United Nations Millenium 2000 Summit of world leaders in New York. Speculation is mounting that the African National Congress […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT and REUTERS, Johannesburg | Monday SOUTH African President Thabo Mbeki has restoked the ongoing controversy over Aids in an interview with US-based news magazine Time, in which he reiterates that he believes HIV is not the only cause of the disease. “No, I am saying that you cannot attribute immune deficiency solely and […]

EGYPTIAN President Hosni Mubarak has set October 18 as the date for launching the country’s “free” parliamentary elections. Voting has been divided into three stages to ensure compliance with an electoral law adopted in July, requiring a magistrate to be present in each of the country’s 15 000 or more polling places. Voters will choose […]

THE London-listed base metals group Billiton plc has confirmed that it has offered shareholders of Rio Algom Limited CD27 (Canadian dollars), or R129,87 a share, in pursuit of its bid for the Canadian zinc and copper producer. Billiton said the company had posted the offer to shareholders on Friday. Billiton is competing for the stake […]