London | Thursday PLATINUM opened at its highest for nine months in Europe on Thursday as speculators rushed to cover amid tightening lease rates and fears over a second strike at the world’s biggest precious metals refinery in South Africa. Platinum built on gains made in Asian trade overnight to begin at $560/565 a troy […]

Johannesburg | Saturday IF the British government had to pay out more than R64-billion in frozen increments to British pensioners living in the Commonwealth, it would mean an automatic increase in National Insurance Contributions for all UK contributors, the London High Court heard on Friday. In April 2001, British pensioners living outside the Commonwealth received […]

HILARY GUSH, Johannesburg | Friday THE rocky road to competition in the South African telecoms market passes another milestone on Friday when industry players submit comments on new draft regulations setting out the liberalised landscape. Under the new rules, a second fixed-line phone network will go into operation this year, ending the monopoly of state-run […]

ERIKA DE BEER, Pretoria | Saturday TWO Pietersburg rugby players convicted of the murder of 19-year-old Tshepo Matloha in the Pretoria High Court on Friday knew their actions could kill him, the judge found. Three other accused were acquitted. Former Noordelikes Rugby Club first team captain Riaan Botha trampled on Matloha’s head, and Ben Korff […]

NAWAAL DEANE, Johannesburg | Friday THE South African Union of Journalists (SAUJ) is facing a financial crisis that may lead to its demise if drastic measures are not implemented to cut costs and restructure its office expenditure. Financial statements for last year indicate that the union office has been depleting funds held in the Joint […]

JASPREET KINDRA, Johannesburg | Friday SENIOR KwaZulu-Natal prisons official Philemon Ntuli, who has given testimony to the Jali commission implicating former provincial prison boss Russel Ngubo and other officials in crimes, says he is trying to rid the department and the African National Congress of “rotten apples”. Ntuli is in hiding after claiming he has […]

Johannesburg | Sunday THE National Intelligence Agency’s inquisition into the sexual CV’s of prospective members of the presidential press corps gave new meaning to the constitutional concept ”organ of state”, the Democratic Alliance said on Sunday. ”The love lives of journalists (like their financial or psychological health) cannot serve as a qualification or disqualification for […]

Bangkok | Tuesday THAILAND’S executions by firing squad could be replaced by lethal injections from next year, after the upper house Senate votes on the issue in October, a report said Tuesday.Bangkok Post that a team of experts, including an architect, a doctor and an engineer, would go to the United States in June for […]

Johannesburg | Monday BILLIONAIRE internet tycoon Mark Shuttleworth’s trip into space will be broadcast live on DStv by Multichoice, the company said on Monday. Shuttleworth (28) who will be the first African and the second tourist in space, will be one of three cosmonauts launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International Space […]