STEVEN MANN, Cape Town | Monday 3.15pm. FORMER Proteas coach Bob Woolmer says he believes fired national cricket captain Hansie Cronje has never been involved in match fixing, and that if this proved to be the case he should become eligible to play for his country again. Woolmer, who now coaches the English county side […]

A 17-year-old youth admitted in the Circuit Court in Port Alfred to stabbing Cape Town businesswoman Brenda Fairhead in the chest after kidnapping her and her daughter, 11, in Jnauary. According to earlier trial evidence, the stabbing caused Fairhead’s death. The youth also testified that he saw Zolani Tom strangling Fairhead’s 11-year-old daughter, Kia. Legal […]

BANKING group Stanbic is to sell its entire holding of 26658-million shares in Liberty International to The British Land Company. The sale, at 550p per share, is worth around R1,5-billion and comprises about 8,5% of Liberty International’s issued share capital. Stanbic said it does not consider the shares a core asset and the sale will […]

REBEL activity around the town of Makeni in western Sierra Leone has triggered a huge exodus of wounded civilians. Many of those seen fleeing have gunshot wounds, most of them from light arms fire, indicating that the wounds were the result of rebel activity and not rebel-government fighting. Military sources said another large party had […]

SOUTH Africa’s foreign affairs department is to undergo a major shake-up because most senior positions are occupied by white males, the director general of the department, Sipho Pityana, said on Monday. “This is crunch time,” Pityana told journalists during a briefing on the activities of his department. He said he would not shy away from […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Addis Ababa | Monday 9.45am. ETHIOPIAN forces will only leave their positions in Eritrea if they are replaced by an international peacekeeping force, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said at the weekend. At the same time, Eritrea said intensive artillery exchanges with Ethiopian forces began just after dawn on Monday on the southern desert […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Basel | Monday 10.30am. RESERVE Bank Governor Tito Mboweni said on Sunday that local interest rates may be on the rise to beat back recent price increases and that South Africans need to fasten their seatbelts as the central bank firmly set its sights on reaching its 3% to 6% 2002 inflation target. […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday 4.30pm. LOCAL stocks advanced in Monday’s dealings on the back of firmer world markets – but Central Bank Governor Tito Mboweni’s remarks about a possible interest rate hike are likely to cap the bourse. Gold shares were lifted by a rallying bullion price while a firmer rand was also supporting […]

SOUTH Africa could send a first contingent of 120 troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as early as June 17 as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force. The foreign ministry said the government is also considering a UN request to send a second contingent of South African troops to Kisangani in the […]

AN explosion rocked the South African office of US software giant Microsoft on Friday, shattering windows but causing no injuries. “There was an explosion at around 5am this morning. Nobody was hurt,” Terry Annecke, marketing director for Microsoft’s South African operations said. She said the blast was caused by an unidentified device and occurred in […]