PORTUGAL’S Carlos Sousa and his co-driver Joao Manuel Luz, seriously injured in the 13th stage of the Paris-Dakar rally arrived at a hospital in Paris on Thursday, medical officials said. The two men were admitted to the Beaujon hospital after arriving on a medical plane from Tunisia. The condition of the two competitors is considered […]

Channel vision Some long years back I got trapped in an aircraft window seat by a young Pik Botha. I think he was then at the World Court in The Hague. We were on a flight from London to Johannesburg and the more Pik banged on to all around him about the moral certainties, the […]

Chris McGreal A triumph of nature over technology has left a multimillion-rand World Bank scheme to combat giant weeds clogging Lake Victoria trailing behind an army of small bugs. The release of weevils into Africa’s largest lake has dramatically reversed the all-consuming spread of the water hyacinth, dubbed the “Aids of the water” in Uganda […]

OFFICIALS from English Premiership club Watford say Democratic Republic of Congo striker Michel Ngonge is likely to miss the African Nations Cup finals because his wife is expecting a child.

Alan Smith Soccer Without wishing to appear disloyal or sound unpatriotic, I have to say that South Africa has a very good case for staging the 2006 World Cup finals. I know we in England are desperate to beat South Africa, Morocco, Brazil and Germany for the right to host the finals. But I doubt […]

Andy Capostagno Golf The weather gods have smiled mercifully on Randpark for the 89th South African Open. After the ceaseless downpours that reduced last week’s Alfred Dunhill Challenge to 54 holes at Houghton, the sun has shone, the wind has helped the drying process and although more rain is forecast for the weekend, it should […]

SOUTH Africa and Hungary have agreed to intensify political cooperation, a Pretoria government statement said after a meeting on Friday between senior foreign ministry officials from the two countries. At the meeting, Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad and visiting Hungarian Political State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Zsolt Nemeth signed an agreement on political consultations.

Movie of the week One could get very cynical about Spanish- American heart-throb Antonio Banderas casting his own wife, Melanie Griffiths, in the lead role of his first directorial outing, Crazy in Alabama. But at least he had the good sense to cast her in a role that she’s more or less created through sheer […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg, Pietersburg | Friday 3.50pm THE government plans to privatise thousands of properties and fixed assets from its R120-billion property portfolio. Business Report quotes Public Works Minister Stella Sigcau as saying that the government intends to dispose of all redundant state-owned houses within the first half of this year. Sigcau is also reported […]

Bob Woolmer >From the Pavilion The changing of the guard is a daily ritual outside Buckingham Palace. Unfortunately, although I suppose inevitably, it also have to happen to the national cricket side. It is an unsettling feeling; the side has performed brilliantly and have become loved by the whole of South Africa. The announcement of […]