AUSTRALIAN international Phil Kearns withdrew on Wednesday from the New South Wales Waratahs team who play the Bulls on Saturday. The hooker injured his knee in last weekend’s 36-30 win over the Chiefs which maintained the Waratahs’ unbeaten start to the series. Former ACT Brumbies hooker Tim Tavalea replaces Kearns and Mark Crick joins the […]
CHILD pornography, particularly on the Internet, is a booming industry, an international conference against the sexual exploitation of children in Cape Town heard on Wednesday. ”There are laws against it in all countries but it is still there. A lot must be done to make the laws work,” campaigner Christa Dammerman from the Terre des […]
MOZAMBICAN President Joaquim Chissano confirmed on Wednesday that his government will introduce a Value Added Tax (VAT) on the scheduled date of April 1, despite pleas for a nine-month postponement from virtually the entire formal business sector. Chissano, speaking through his press spokesperson Antonio Matonse, told the independent newsheet Metical that the VAT is a […]
THE US government has set aside an economic assistance budget of $711,3-million for Africa in 1999, a large chunk of which goes to the promotion of family planning and protection of human health. A breakdown of the 1999 budget for Africa by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) shows that $253-million has been allocated […]
JAPAN’S Mitsui Corporation is assessing the potential of Zambia’s Konkola Deep Mining Project with the possibility of taking an equity interest. The lead investor, Anglo American, has already stated that it wishes to work with seasoned developers on the KDMP as the resources required are enormous. Mitsui wishes to secure a long-term copper concentrates (enriched […]
A MOLDAVIAN woman attempting to smuggle five baby Nile crocodiles in three pieces of luggage was foiled by Egyptian customs officials on Wednesday, an airport spokesperson said. It is illegal to export the reptiles from Egypt but the woman, who also had 59 water snakes and aquarium fish in her luggage, was allowed to resume […]
MOROCCO and the United Nations have signed a military agreement to identify and destroy mines and unexploded bombs still buried in the Western Sahara, UN officials based in Al Ayun said Tuesday. The agreement does not apply to minefields bordering the fortifications built by Morocco in the barren eastern part of the territory.Minurso, the UN […]
ALGERIA is to cut its oil production by 57000 barrels a day from April 1, the state-owned oil group Sonatrach said on Wednesday. “This measure…follows the decision taken by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec)to reduce the production levels of its members,” Sonatrach said.
INFLATION in Zimbabwe hit a record 50% in February, surpassing the August 1992 high of 49,1%, the country’s central statistical office said on Tuesday. The unprecedented rise was prompted by steep hikes in the prices of food stuffs. The highest inflation level reached previously in Zimbabwe, in 1992, was attributed to severe drought. The inflation […]
THE Anglo-Swiss team trying to make the first non-stop round-the-world balloon flight is now unlikely to touch down in Egypt, contrary to earlier hopes, organisers said on Wednesday. The meteorologists plotting the course of the Breitling Orbiter III, piloted by Bertrand Piccard of Switzerland and Brian Jones of Britain, will not be able to name […]