THE South African government is concerned about the deaths of civilians in Afghanistan, and has called for constraint in the use by the US of military strikes, an official said on Tuesday. “While South Africa recognises the right of the United States government to track down the perpetrators of the September 11 terrorist attacks to […]

TWO South African Airways flights were grounded on Thursday night, after flight attendants and personnel in Cape Town discovered a latex glove and “white powerdery substance” on a plane being readied for flight to Johannesburg. According to SAA, all personnel were ordered to leave the aircraft. The police were called, and chemical decontamination specialists Waste […]

THE Zimbabwe government has approved the commercialisation of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) into a public company wholly owned by the government. The Herald reported that the ZBC commercialisation Bill will soon go to parliament. The Bill intends to split the public broadcaster into two separate companies: one responsible for Broadcasting and the other for […]

EGYPTIAN President Hosni Mubarak offered support to the United States in its war on terrorism, but reiterated his opposition to a prolonged conflict that goes beyond Afghanistan, in an interview with Newsweek magazine. “I support the United States in fighting terrorism,” Mubarak said in the interview to appear in the weekly’s Monday edition. “We suffered […]

GLENDA DANIELS, Johannesburg | Friday AMENDMENTS to the Labour Relations Act – recently hailed as a major breakthrough between labour, business and the government – remain bedeviled by controversial sticking points and may not see the light of day this year. Hitches remain over the right to strike on retrenchments, seen as the major concession […]

A CRIPPLING indefinite strike launched by pilots and cabin crew of ailing carrier Air Afrique continued for a third day on Friday as talks between the protestors and the management failed. “The meeting with the director-general did not elicit satisfactory responses to our grievances, therefore the strike will continue,” said Denis Attiba, representative for the […]

An Egyptian Islamic militant presumed close to chief terror suspect Osama bin Laden was killed while handling a bomb dropped by US aircraft on Afghanistan, the head of an Islamic information agency said on Thursday. The Egyptian, named as Abu Bassir al-Masri, an alias, was killed Friday near Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan, Yasser al-Serri, head […]

MOZAMBIQUE President Joaquim Chissano said on Tuesday that the current war on terrorism, declared in the wake of terror strikes last month against the United States, should be extended to become a war on poverty. Chissano, who is on an official visit to Cuba, called poverty a “pressing need of humanity,” but underlined that current […]

AFTER several incidents this week when police were called out on false anthrax scares, two hoaxsters in Cape Town have been charged with intimidation and another two intimidation dockets are under investigation in Johannesburg. This follows this week’s warning from the national commissioner of police, Jackie Selebi, that hoaxsters would be fined. He also drew […]

EMMANUEL GIROUD, ESDRAS NDIKUMANA, Bujumbura | Wednesday AS more South African protection troops poured into Burundi on Tuesday, politicians from the government and the opposition engaged in last minute horse-trading for jobs in a transitional regime. The Hutu-Tutsi power sharing arrangements are due to come into effect on Thursday and constitute a cornerstone of efforts […]