TUESDAY, 12.30PM: SOUTH African cricket coach Bob Woolmer and skipper Hansie Cronje said the victories in Pakistan are now history and are concentrating on beating arch-rivals Australia in the tour Down Under. Speaking on the team’s arrival at the Johannesburg international airport on Monday, Cronje said: “The emergence of some of the young players like […]

SOMALIA FLOOD AID UNITED Nations agencies and the Red Cross on Tuesday launched the first stages of an emergency relief operation to bring aid to an estimated 200 000 people at risk from drowning and disease after the heaviest flooding in Somalia in living memory. The UN has appealed for funds for the operation, estimated […]

MONDAY, 11.00AM: GOVERNMENT has put on hold the proposed sale of its Alexkor diamond mine pending establishment of the value of the enterprise. Confirming the postponement at the weekend, public enterprises ministry spokesman Wandile Zote said that a private company may be appointed to manage the mine in the interim. Zote said government has revised […]

MONDAY, 12.30PM: WESTERN Province beat Eastern Province in a Standard Bank League cricket match at St Georges Park on Sunday. WP hit 224/9 in 45 overs and dismissed the home side at 212 with one over remaining. Westerns’ Paul Kirsten hammered 67 to help his team to victory. Easterns’ hopes of victory were dented when […]

MONDAY, 3.00PM ZIMBABWEAN war veterans became rowdy at Monday’s hearing of the Chidyausiku Commission probing fraudulent claims from a war victims’ compensation fund, leading to an abrupt suspension of proceedings. The 250 veterans packing out the court house were angered by cross examination of their leader, Dr Chenjerai Hunzvi, who was being questioned on alleged […]

MONDAY, 11.00AM: BLACK empowerment group Thebe Investment Corporation is set to enter the retail petroleum market through its Thebe Petroleum Company (Tepco), which intends opening its first retail filling stations early in the new year. Tepco, formerly Bambanani Petroleum, was formed two years ago to wholesale petroleum, with the company 80% owned by Thebe, while […]

MONDAY, 4.00PM KENYAN President Daniel arap Moi on Monday dissolved the country’s seventh parliament Monday in preparation for general elections expected later this year. A statement issued by Moi’s office at State House in Nairobi said the parliament and all other elected bodies have been dissolved. No date has yet been set for the elections. […]

MONDAY, 11.00AM: LEADING credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s visited SA last week as part of a review process that could see SA’s international credit rating being upgraded. The agency has refused to comment on the visit, which was confirmed by the finance department. S&P has given SA a credit rating one notch below the […]

48 KILLED IN ALGERIA AT least 26 people were killed overnight on Saturday by an armed gang near Blida, south of the Algerian capital Algiers, bringing to 48 the number of victims of massacres in the past two days, local press said on Monday. The cut-throat killings near Blida and near Tlemcen in the west, […]

MONDAY, 11.00AM: A LEADING labour consultancy has estimated that the Basic Conditions of Employment Bill, if enacted in its present form, could lead to an 18% escalation in labour costs in SA. The prediction was made by Andrew Levy & Associates, published at the weekend in the Ecometrix Bulletin. The employment Bill was overwhelmingly voted […]