OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maseru | Thursday 11.30pm. AN urgent application by the wives of three Lesotho Defence Force soldiers arrested in connection with an army mutiny last month was heard in the High Court in Maseru on Thursday. The women have made the application to demand that their husbands be allowed to meet their lawyers privately […]

President Nelson Mandela on Thursday held talks with Rwandan vice-president Paul Kagame in Pretoria.

SARAH BULLEN, Johannesburg | Thursday 8.30pm. SOUTH Africa’s trade balance recovered to a R146-million surplus in September, after a deficit of almost R3-billion in August, according to figures by the South African Revenue Services on Thursday. The balance was boosted in South Africa’s favour by a 7,5% drop in imports, combined with a 16,8% rise […]

MIKE METELITS, Johannesburg | Thursday 11.00am. INTERNATIONAL markets gave the JSE no cheer on Thursday as stock indices closed lower. The strong recovery in trade figures boosted bonds minutely and kept the rand in a tight trading range. While the Nikkei gained only 79 points overnight, European markets were mixed. The FTSE-100 was up 22 […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 3.30pm. THE South African Futures Exchange (Safex) has polled its members on a proposed change of hours, shortening trading by 30 minutes, but allowing almost two hours of “after hours” trading. Members have been asked to reply by October 27 whether they would favour closing trading at 17:00 local time, […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Wednesday 8.30pm. MILITARY bases bases in Lesotho secured by South African and Botswana troops will be handed back to the Lesotho Defence Force by the end of the month, the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) said on Wednesday. “It is intended to have the military bases cleared by October 30, […]

PAUL EJIME, Lagos | Wednesday 8.00pm. THE secretariat staff of the 16-nation Economic Community of West Africa States has presented a list of demands, including more pay and better service conditions, to the organisation’s chairman, Nigerian military ruler General Abdulsalami Abubakar. Staff approached Abubakar as he was visiting the Abuja Secretariat of the 23-year-old organisation […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Lagos | Tuesday 11.00pm REPORTS in Lagos indicate the death toll in the Nigerian pipeline tragedy may be nearer to 1000 than the 500 first estimated. Local media, including the semi-official Daily Times newspaper, Tuesday quoted eyewitnesses as saying as many as 1000 people had died in the inferno in Jesse, in the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Mahlabathini | Monday 7.00pm. POLICE on Monday arrested the last of a gang of five men who last week allegedly abducted, gang-raped and robbed three Swiss tourists in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province. The suspect, in his late teens or early twenties, was handed over to the Mahlabathini police station in northern KwaZulu-Natal by […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Tuesday 12.30pm. THE Namibian government on Monday said that the country is going to start facing crippling electricity shortages from next year as its electricity supplies start to dwindle. Speaking at Africa Downstream ’98 conference in Cape Town, Namibian mines and energy ministry deputy director of energy Markus von Jeney […]