THE cash-strapped National Symphony Orchestra, facing closure at the weekend, is involved in urgent talks with a number of potential sponsors Friday, NSO chairman Don MacRobert said on Friday. MacRobert said that he has been contacted by a banking group and a life assurance company, as well as a number of private citizens, offering to […]

PHILIPE BERNES-LASSERRE and EMSIE FERREIRA, Pretoria | Sunday 6.00pm THE vast numbers of Burundians fleeing their country have become Africa’s single biggest refugee crisis, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata said in Pretoria on Saturday. “Just over the Christmas holiday some 20000 new persons arrived [in Tanzania] which makes the overall Burundian refugee situation […]

CLOSE of play scores on the first day of four-day South African SuperSport Series cricket matches on Friday. In Port Elizabeth: Boland 193-9 declared, Eastern Province 26-4. In East London: Western Province 111 (Vasbert Drakes 5-37), Border 116-3.

SUDAN and Eritrea have agreed on how to ensure security following the reopening of their borders and the restoration of diplomatic relations, the SUNA news agency reported on Sunday. The two sides on Saturday concluded a two-day meeting on security in east Sudan’s Kassala town by opening the border to traffic and creating a mechanism […]

SUDANESE President Omar al-Beshir and Islamist leader Hassan al-Turabi held a face to face meeting for the first time since a political conflict between the two about six weeks ago. Al-Rai Al-Akher independent daily said a ruling party mediatory committee managed to bring Beshir and Turabi together in a luncheon Friday to mark the end […]

THE Côte d’Ivoire’s military-led government, in power since ousting Henri Konan Bedie on December 24, announced Friday that a constitutional referendum will be held in April and that presidential elections will be held later. The statement did not indicate an exact date in April for the referendum, nor did it announce when presidential elections will […]

SARAH BULLEN, Cape Town | Sunday 5.00pm THE Department of Foreign Affairs on Sunday rejected recent reports that South Africa is arming certain rebel groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The department in a statement denied it is providing assistance to any faction in the conflict and said its intevention is on a diplomatic […]

JEREMY LOVELL, Cape Town | Saturday 5.45pm OPPOSITION parties have welcomed the removal from a draft law on equality a controversial clause that would have banned discrimination against people with HIV/Aids.br> The bill now includes a clause instructing the minister of justice to set up a committee to study and make recommendations on the matter […]

PAGAD leader Abdus-Salaam Ebrahim, who has been charged with the 1996 murder of gang boss Rashaad Staggie and several other crimes, is to remain behind bars for now. Ebrahim’s bail application which began on Thursday in the Cape Town Regional Court was on Friday postponed until February 8. Ebrahim has denied any wrongdoing, saying that […]

ELEVEN Mozambicans died in the south of the country this week while trying to escape floods which have left some 1000 people in the area homeless, state radio reported on Saturday. Radio Mozambique said the 11 died while trying to cross in two separate dug-out canoes the Incomati and Maputo rivers which burst their banks […]