DAVID SHAPSHAK, Johannesburg | Friday ULTIMATELY, 20twenty’s most famous billboard pay-off line, a quote from Microsoft chief Bill Gates – “Banking is necessary, banks are not” – has come back to haunt it – and most certainly its parent, Saambou. Despite being a rising local Internet star, the virtual bank is now part of the […]

Pretoria | Monday US Trade representative Robert Zoellick has announced grants totalling $8,7-million to help boost southern Africa’s capacity for international trade, the US embassy in Pretoria said on Sunday. Zoellick met with ministers and diplomats of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (Sadc) on Saturday. He informed Sadc ministers of three US initiatives under […]

Lagos | Monday The family of Nigeria’s legendary Afro-beat star, Fela Kuti, will be finally compensated for the 1977 razing of their house by the army, a senior official was quoted as saying on Monday. Bola Tinubu, governor of the state of Lagos, was quoted by the Guardian daily as saying that the Kuti family […]

BuyUSA.com, an electronic marketplace sponsored by the United States Department of Commerce and implemented by IBM, was formally launched on the African continent on Monday by US Commercial Service director general Maria Cino. BuyUSA.com is geared to enabling American small and medium-sized exporters to locate, assess and establish working relationships with distributors and suppliers globally. […]

REBELS in eastern Burundi killed a civilian and seriously wounded four others, including a senior UN aid worker, during a raid in the province of Ruyigi. The attack occurred on Saturday when rebels from the Forces for the Defence of Democracy (FDD) ambushed a private vehicle, a source said. “The driver died during the attack […]

Tripoli | Monday A TWO-year trial of six Bulgarians accused of deliberately killing Libyan children by infecting them with the HIV virus folded on Sunday because of lack of evidence that they had threatened state security. A decision by the Tripoli court trying the case to refer it back to state prosecutors for reconsideration and […]

WOUTER Basson, South Africa’s chemical and biological warfare mastermind under the apartheid regime, is on the mend after suffering a stroke and could be out of intensive care soon. Basson (51) who has been dubbed “Dr Death” for his involvement in shady sanctions-busting deals and chemical and biological experiments during the apartheid era, suffered a […]

TWENTY-eight people were arrested and thousands of perlemoen and crayfish recovered on the Cape south coast since last week Wednesday as part of Operation Neptune, police said on Sunday. Inspector Eben Groenewald said in the most recent incident, 2 337 crayfish tails and 398 whole crayfish were discovered in Hawston, Hermanus on Sunday. Groenewald said […]

Pietersburg | Saturday A GROUP of Afrikaners in a protest against the proposed renaming of Pietersburg and other Northern Province towns – on Friday vowed to set up alternative city councils in the province. They also expressed support for the idea of withholding tax to underline their resistance to the new names. The demonstration took […]