NIGERIA’S build-up to the African Nations Cup finals next month has been hit by overseas clubs refusing to release key players. Co-hosts Nigeria and defending champions Egypt are among the countries battling against time to prepare for the 16-team event starting on January 22. Nigerian coach Jo Bonfrere, who returned to the job only a […]

THE Unita rebel movement in Angola has called for peace talks with the government next year, following a string of defeats in its south-eastern strongholds. In a statement published in Paris, Unita said peace has to go further than a simple end to hostilities. “Peace must come from a dialogue on the deep historical and […]

DEMOCRATIC Republic of Congo opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi left his country for the first time in years for a private visit to South Africa on Wednesday. Tshisekedi, a long-time foe of the late Mobutu Sese Seko, and now of his successor Laurent Desire-Kabila, heads the Union for Democracy and Social Progress. He had repeatedly been […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Durban | Tuesday 1.00pm. SOUTH Africa crushed the demoralised West Indian team by nine wickets on the fourth day of the third Test on Tuesda,y to wrap up a series victory. Needing only 146 to win the first full series between the two sides, South Africa cruised home after a free-scoring opening stand […]

A 14-YEAR-OLD youth was on Wednesday sentenced in the Cape Town Regional Court to 15 years in jail, three of them suspended, for stabbing to death acclaimed sport and news photographer John Rubython during a burglary in April. The teenager, who is too young to be named, was in October found guilty of stabbing British-born […]

SOUTH AFRICAN holiday road deaths passed the 600 mark on Monday morning, with 100 deaths recorded over the Christmas weekend alone. A provincial breakdown of the deaths has not yet been released, but the most recent figure, for Sunday night, was: KwaZulu-Natal, with 106, followed by 91 in the Western Cape, 72 in Gauteng, 73 […]

ABOUT 50 heavily armed police officers, apparently seeking firearms, raided the palace of Malawi’s late dictator Kamuzu Banda in the northern Kasungu district, an opposition politician said on Tuesday. Hetherwick Ntaba, an outspoken member of Banda’s Malawi Congress Party (MCP), said the police had a court warrant to search the largely unused hilltop palace, some […]

A PARACHUTIST remains in a critical condition at the Knysna Hospital after a freak accident at an airshow at Plettenberg Bay in the Western Cape on Monday, SABC radio news reported on Tuesday. Paul Siebert hit the tailwing of the aircraft he was jumping from, and was knocked unconscious. His parachute opened with the impact, […]

UN chief Kofi Annan has asked the security council to raise the number of peacekeeping troops in troubled Sierra Leone to 10000 to make up for the departure of Nigerian soldiers. The UN force, Unamsil, has deployed 6000 troops in the country to enforce peace accords signed in July to bring an end to its […]

VOLUMES were thin on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on Tuesday with many players absent for year-end holidays. The modest value traded, only R327-million, and the fall in the benchmark all share index were evidence of the thin trading conditions. Other major indices were also down, with the exception of the financial index and the gold […]