EGYPTIAN President Hosni Mubabrak has welcomed the Israeli cabinet’s decision to transfer full control of three villages near Jerusalem to the Palestinians. “The decision to return the three villages to the Palestinian Authority is a step in the right direction,” Mubarak said in a statement published by the state-owned MENA news agency. One of the […]

AN investigation has been launched to determine the cause of the underground explosion that killed seven miners at the Beatrix gold mine near Welkom on Monday. Part of the mine was shut down on Monday evening pending the outcome of a meeting with Mineral and Energy Affairs Minister Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, National Union of Mineworkers representatives […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 4.30pm. ALL local counters were up on Tuesday ahead of a key meeting of the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate-setting committee. There is widespread speculation the US committee will become more aggressive in the fight against inflation and boost rates by half a percentage point, making it more costly to […]

MALAWI President Bakili Muluzi has called for fast track debt relief so he can spare funds to improve the lives of his 10-million mainly poor people. Opening the annual Consultative Group meeting between this impoverished southern African country and its mainly Western lenders late on Monday, Muluzi pledged to intensify a fight against graft, which […]

CôTE d’Ivoire’s military junta said it will stamp down on any unrest caused by politicians who disagree with eligibility criteria drawn up for candidates in a presidential election to be held later this year. In a statement read out on state media late on Saturday, the junta said certain political leaders, whom it does not […]

ITALO-BELGIAN former journalist Georges Omar Ruggiu, 44, has pleaded guilty in a UN court in Arusha, Tanzania, to having used the airwaves to incite the 1994 genocide that claimed up to 800000 lives in Rwanda. Ruggiu is the only non-Rwandan to appear before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. He “admitted having directly and publicly […]

A VAST game reserve spanning Botswana and South Africa became Africa’s first official transfrontier park on Friday after the presidents of the two countries opened the conservation zone. President Thabo Mbeki and his Botswanan counterpart Festus Mogae inaugurated the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park at a ceremony attended by about 500 people at the park’s southern Twee […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Tuesday 5.15pm. COMMONWEALTH chief Don McKinnon said free and fair elections in Zimbabwe are possible, after talks with President Robert Mugabe on Tuesday. “I believe it is possible to have a free election,” Secretary General McKinnon said after the hour-long meeting at Mugabe’s State House office in Harare. “There are concerns […]

ZIMBABWEAN leg-spinner Brian Murphy has had to cut short his final-year law studies to strengthen the depleted Zimbabwe bowling attack in the two-test series against England starting at Lord’s on Thursday. Murphy, 23, made his debut in the West Indies this year, and will play in the place of senior leg spinner Paul Strang, who […]

LEADERS from eastern and southern Africa meet in Mauritius on Wednesday to discuss ambitious plans for economic integration which are threatened by conflicts across the continent. Heads of state from members of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa will hold a two-day summit to discuss plans to create a free trade zone from […]