OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kuala Lumpur | Thursday 11.40am. STAR pole-vaulter Ockert Brits has pulled out of the South African Commonwealth Games team, troubled by a hamstring injury. Brits will also no longer be competing in the Athletics World Cup, which begins at the Johannesburg Stadium on Friday. Brits informed Athletics SA secretary-general Banele Sindani of his […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Thursday 9.30pm. FORMER chief of police Johann Coetzee on Thursday told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that he found the assasination of former Communist party chief Joe Slovo’s wife, Ruth First, morally repugnant, and again denied having any part in the parcel-bomb murder. Coetzee told the TRC’s amnesty committee that he […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 8.00PM. UNITED Nations secretary general Kofi Annan has warned that the UN will pull out of Angola if the government and Unita don’t stop fighting. Annan called for the UN brokered 1994 peace accords to be implemented immediately. He recommended the Security Council conduct a full-scale review of the situation […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kisangani | Wednesday 11.00pm. REBELS occupying the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo city of Kisangani are striking north and aiming for the strategic town of Buta after overrunning Banalia, 100km north of Kisangani, their military commander said on Wednesday. Commander Jean-Pierre Ondekane said that Banalia had been under rebel control for some time, […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maseru | Wednesday 11.30pm. DEPUTY President Thabo Mbeki has told a Lesotho government delegation that the findings of the Langa commission of inquiry into electoral fraud in the mountain kingdom will not be made public until the Southern African Development Community meeting in Mauritius on Sunday. He gave the same response to Lesotho […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Luanda | Wednesday 11.30pm. SEVENTY MPs belonging to Angola’s rebel Unita movement who were dismissed from parliament last week have refused to joint the breakaway faction which has established itself as the movement’s alternative leadership. Five ministers, also dismissed for being Unita members, last week denounced leader Jonas Savimbi and set up a […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kuala Lumpur | Tuesday 11.00pm. THE Commonwealth Games general assembly decided on Tuesday to limit the number of participating sports in future meetings to 14. The limit has been forced on officials as they struggle to compete against an ever growing international sports calendar. Other changes decided at the federation’s general assembly include […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Nelspruit | Tuesday 9.15pm. MPUMALANGA’s provincial finance MEC Jacques Modipane on Tuesday said that it is highly probable that Mpumalanga’s Parks Board chief Alan Gray forged his signature on the back of three illegal promissory notes. The notes offer some of South Africa’s prize national parks up as collateral for an illegal R340-million […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Moroni | Wednesday 8.00pm. UNITED STATES FBI investigators are searching for a Comorian Islamic militant as part of their inquiry into the US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, sources in the Comorian capital, Moroni, said on Wednesday. The suspect, Abdallah Mohamed Fadhul, 25, arrived in Moroni on August 14, seven days after […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Wednesday 9.00pm. FORMER police commissioner General Johann Coetzee told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission amnesty committee in Pretoria on Wednesday that he never agreed to any political assassinations, including that of Ruth First. Coetzee, who is applying for amnesty for the bombing of the ANC’s London offices in March 1982, was […]