THREE barges carrying a floating power station arrived in the Nigerian capital Lagos this week, under a deal reached earlier this year to boost chronic power supplies in the city. United States group Enron in September signed a deal with the Lagos State government to supply a 90 megawatt floating power station to be moored […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday 12.40pm THE Consumer Price Index for November released on Tuesday showed consumer prices rose 1,9% year-on-year compared with a 1,7% rise in October. Core inflation rose 8,1% year-on-year versus 8 percent in October. Economists are mixed about how to read the data. ”It is worse than we had been looking […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, East London | Tuesday 8.30pm. MARK Ramprakash has been called up for England’s tour to South Africa as cover for injured batsman Michael Vaughan. The Middlesex captain was chosen ahead of official stand-by batsmen Nick Knight and Graeme Hick and will fly out to join the rest of the 17-man party in Durban […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday 2.00pm. AN electronic commerce company based in the United States is paying R3,5-billion for a small Cape Town-based internet security group which has emerged as the second biggest company of its kind in the world. According to the Business Day, Thawte, which provides digital certificates and security solutions for e-commerce, […]

IBO leaders from Nigeria’s southeast are demanding $87-billion in government compensation for civil war during the 1960s and years of subsequent marginalisation. A petition from the Ohaneze group submitted to President Olusegun Obasanjo’s human rights panel and published in local newspapers catalogued perceived wrongs against the Ibos from ethnic riots in 1966 to date.

FINAL official results from Mozambique’s second democratic elections are due to be announced on Monday, an electoral official said. “The final results will be announced in principle tomorrow,” National Elections Commission (CNE) spokesman Julio Bika told AFP on Sunday. The results of the presidential and parliamentary elections, held in early December, could not be announced […]

LIBYAN leader Muammar Gaddafi has met Laurent Kabila, president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, in Tunis for talks on ways to restore peace in Africa’s Great Lakes region, Libyan state television reported. Gaddafi and Kabila met in Tripoli on Sunday night to discuss mechanisms to implement a peace accord concluded earlier this year between […]

GABON’S Finance Minister, Emile Doumba, has moved to calm disgruntled civil servants in an open letter defending his cash-strapped government’s plan to slash salaries by up to 25%. In his letter, published by national media, Doumba said the cuts were essential to reduce government spending in the face of sliding revenues and falling oil production.

AFRICAN leaders and senior international bankers will meet in Libreville in January to discuss anti-poverty strategies and economic growth in the region. The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Michel Camdessus, the president of the African Development Bank (ADB), Omar Kabbaj, and governors of a number of African central banks will attend the January […]

FOREIGN Minister Nkosazana Zuma arrived in Rwanda on Thursday to sign a co-operation agreement intended to pave the way for closer ties in trade and culture. She is also expected to discuss the situation in Democratic Republic of Congo, where Rwandan troops have been fighting in support of the Congolese rebels before signing a peace […]