Gardez | Thursday THE United States has rushed hundreds of reinforcements to the mountains of eastern Afghanistan as the coalition against terrorism pressed into the sixth day of its costliest battle. As Cobra helicopter gunships and Apaches made their way to the rugged mountains of Afghanistan, the military said 100 more al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters […]
Syrte, Libya | Thursday A TWO-day summit of 16 African desert states opened on Wednesday in Libya’s eastern city of Syrte with two new members, Benin and Togo, joining the group. Because of lack of consensus among member states a third candidate, Liberia, failed to obtain full membership rights and received instead observer status, Secretary […]
Johannesburg | Thursday INDIAN Booker Prize-winning author Arundhati Roy was released from jail Thursday after paying a 2 000 rupee ($40) fine imposed by the Supreme Court for criminal contempt. Roy had spent the night in Tihar jail after the court on Wednesday handed down a “symbolic” one-day prison sentence and the accompanying fine. Had […]
Former president Nelson Mandela on Thursday praised Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa for his stance on the provision of an anti-Aids drug.
East London | Wednesday AN East London undertaker has been holding the bodies of two women since October last year pending payment of outstanding storage fees from a business counterpart. Mzamo Ngcawana, owner of the Ngcawana Funeral Services, said he had been asked by Vuyisile Nqoma, who owns the Bathethile Abantu Funeral Services, to store […]
Cape Town | Wednesday A PACKED public gallery in the Cape High Court on Wednesday loudly applauded Judge John Foxcroft for acquitting Pagad’s chief co-ordinator Abdus Salaam Ebrahim and three co-accused for the murder of druglord Rashaad Staggie. With Ebrahim in the dock were the organisation’s chief of security Salie Abader, Moegamat Mohamed and Abdur […]
New Dehli | Thursday INDIAN police have arrested 70 bookmakers who fuelled rumours about riots to encourage bets on the chances of sectarian violence in Gujarat state spreading to other areas, the Hindustan Times recently reported. The bookies living in the north western state of Rajasthan, adjacent to Gujarat, were offering odds of between 4-1 […]
STUART GRAHAM, Johannesburg | Thursday THE appreciation of the currency over the past few days was an overdue correction, the commission into the depreciation of the rand heard on Thursday. Investec’s global head of foreign exchange trading, Patrick de Villiers, was answering a question by assistant commissioner Christine Qunta on whether the volatile situation in […]
Mpumalanga | Wednesday THE axing of Dr Thys von Mollendorff as superintendent of the Rob Ferreira Hospital in Nelspruit for allowing the distribution of anti-retrovirals to HIV-positive pregnant women is ethically indefensible, human rights law experts from the University of the Witwatersrand said on Wednesday. ”We call on the MEC for health to reconsider her […]
Johannesburg | Wednesday SOUTH African steel giant Iscor has welcomed the United States decision to exempt South Africa from three-year tariffs of up to 30% imposed on most US steel imports. The move, announced by George Bush to protect the US’s ailing steel industry, has provoked swift and angry international reaction. The European Union said […]