Staff Reporter
No image available
/ 29 January 2008

Pakistan missile strike kills 12 in new violence

Twelve suspected militants were killed by a missile strike in Pakistan’s troubled tribal belt, hours after gunmen held 300 children hostage at a nearby school, officials said on Tuesday. Separately, a Pakistani soldier was killed and five others injured in the latest clashes between security forces and Islamist insurgents in the lawless borderlands with Afghanistan.

No image available
/ 29 January 2008

India renew pull-out threat over racism row

India will abandon the tour of Australia if spinner Harbhajan Singh is not cleared of racial abuse charges, a top Indian official said on Tuesday. Harbhajan was handed a three-Test ban by match referee Mike Procter after being found guilty of racially abusing Australia’s Andrew Symonds during the acrimonious Sydney Test earlier this month.

No image available
/ 29 January 2008

ID plans vote of no confidence in Mbeki

The Independent Democrats (ID) said on Monday it would bring a motion of no confidence against President Thabo Mbeki and his Cabinet for failing to avert power cuts that have forced some industries to shut down. ID leader Patricia de Lille accused Mbeki of having ignored warnings about the crunch in electricity supplies.

No image available
/ 29 January 2008

Vodacom reports growth in customer base

South African cellphone operator Vodacom recorded 33-million customers across its networks operating in South Africa, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho and Mozambique as at the end of December 2007 — a 4,7% increase in the three months since end September 2007, the company said on Tuesday.

No image available
/ 29 January 2008

Downgrading fatherhood

There are many things I remember fondly from my childhood Christmases: the Advent countdown, the silver milk bottle-top decorations, my formative rendering of Mary in the nativity musical Only a Baby. But from a very young age I was also aware that December was the month that told the world what a family ought to look like.

No image available
/ 28 January 2008

Private hospitals dispute claims of exorbitant profits

Private hospitals have disputed claims that they make exorbitant profits. ”The private hospital sector … offers the lowest returns on invested capital in the healthcare chain system,” the Hospital Association of South Africa said on Monday. Chief executive Kurt Worrall-Clare said the profitability of a business could not be evaluated by looking at its income alone.