ALBANIA’S exiled King Leka, jailed this week pending a bail hearing, was hospitalised with a bleeding ulcer late on Tuesday. Police spokesperson Captain Francois Grobbelaar said on Wednesday that Leka (60) had complained of feeling ill and was admitted to a Johannesburg clinic. The king is being held on charges of illegal possession of firearms, […]

POTENTIAL bidders continue to woo SA Druggists as the likelihood of Texas company Argyll Scientific making a serious bid for the company appears to be diminishing. Black empowerment group Macmed and two pharmaceutical companies are believed to be negotiating with Fedsure, SAD’s largest shareholder. Fedsure’s proposal to buy 100% of SAD and sell Pharmacare to […]

SECURITY guards nationwide are set to strike on Wednesday to demand a shorter working week. The guards — 70000 strong — belong to the Transport and General Workers Union whose general secretary, Randall Howard, warns businesses face chaos if the strike goes ahead. Howard said on Monday that industrial action was the union’s response to […]

A COMMUNIST opposition group in Sudan has been planning bomb attacks, political assassinations and the overthrow of the current Islamic regime, a pro-government daily charged on Tuesday.A ”secret document” sent by members of the Modern Forces Movement to its leaders in Sudan and abroad reveal plans for a ”comprehensive war” against the regime of President […]

THE South African-based McCormick Property Development Group committed $23-million on Wednesday to building Mozambique’s biggest shopping mall yet in the industrial suburb of Matola near Maputo city. The 21500m Matola Plaza will boast between 67 and 85 shops, the country’s first ”mall style” entertainment complex and cinema and a 40-bed private clinic. Developers will break […]

WERNER MENGES, Windhoek | Tuesday 4.15pm. THE Namibian economy quietly made history last year when the official average inflation rate for the year sunk to its lowest level since independence, the National Planning Commission’s Central Statistics Office said on Monday. The annual Namibian inflation rate, as measured in the capital, Windhoek, averaged 6,21% last year […]

NIGERIA’s military government set up a 16-man committee on Monday to organise the formal arrangements for hand-over of power to a civilian ruler, a top official said. Vice Admiral Mike Akhigbe, the chief of general staff and number two man in the Nigerian regime, said the committee — part military and part civilian — will […]

THE bid for SA Druggists by a United States drug firm, Argyll Scientific, has collapsed as local firm Macmed which was connected to the deal has withdrawn from the negotiations. Macmed claims it gave Argyll time to come up with an acceptable proposal but that it failed to do so timeously. Macmed is now likely […]

POLLS opened in Niger on Sunday for the election of 2053 local, municipal and regional officials, the last phase of the West African country’s process of restoration democratic insitutions. President Ibrahim Bare Mainassara and his government voted at Niamey town hall when polling stations opened. The government has warned against troublemaking and cautioned foreign oberservers […]

TWO people were killed and about 10 injured in last week’s crash of an Antonov-26 cargo plane in Angola and the Russian pilots, said to have been drunk, will be tried. Angolan aviation officials said on Tuesday that a pregnant woman was among those killed when the transport plane, owned by the Airangol company, crashed […]