IRWIN ARIEFF, United Nations | Tuesday THE United Nations warned on Monday that Afghanistan was plunging into a crisis of ”stunning proportions” after the country’s Taliban rulers crippled UN humanitarian relief operations there. ”We urge a world wounded by the horrific and deplorable terrorist attacks of September 11 to be mindful of the principles of […]

NORTH West health MEC Dr Molefi Sefularo and a group of senior managers will spend half a day at the Mafikeng Provincial Hospital on Thursday providing front-line services as part of Public Service Week. Department representative Cornelius Monama said Sefularo’s day would consist of washing dishes and assisting in the preparation and serving of meals. […]

THE Pretoria High Court will hear an application beginning on Wednesday by former South African national cricket captain Hansie Cronje to reverse his life-long ban from the sport. The United Cricket Board of SA banned him in November last year from all forms of cricket under its jurisdiction. That came after Cronje admitted to the […]

TWO South African brothers suspected of posting a hoax e-mail on the Internet claiming that South Africans were involved in the terrorist attacks on the United States were on Wednesday freed on bail. SABC public radio reported that the Bellville Magistrate’s Court, just outside Cape Town, granted William and Christiaan Conradie bail of R10_000 ($1 […]

BILL BLUMENFELD, Cape Town | Monday DISGRACED former cabinet minister and New National Party member, Abe Williams, says he is planning to look at the interests of the community, especially to the people of Atlantis on the Cape West coast where poverty is rampant. ”There are lots of priorities in terms of poverty. It’s a […]

OSAMA bin Laden has displaced Pamela Lee Anderson in cyberspace and people looking for information about the American flag outnumbered those curious about Britney Spears. For the first time in the short history of the Internet, popular search engines report that ”sex” dropped off their lists of top 10 search terms in the days following […]

A 16-year-old girl convicted of killing penguins will spend 16 hours a month over the next two years cleaning and scrubbing the marine bird enclosure at the East London Aquarium, a magistrate ruled on Tuesday. The girl, who may not be named because she is a minor, confessed to being involved in the killing of […]

A 45-year-old man was arrested in Carletonville in the West Rand for allegedly raping a nine-year-old girl and indecently assaulting her eight-year-old sister for over two months, police said on Tuesday. Captain Paula Nothnagel said the girls and their parents had been boarding at the man’s home in the Blyvooruitsigt suburb, where the alleged assaults […]

THE tiny Afghan community in South Africa — about 30 strong — appealed to the Bush administration to show restraint in the wake of last Tuesday’s terror attacks on New York and Washington. The man the United States government suspects is behind the attacks, Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, lives in Afghanistan as a guest […]

Mbabane | Wednesday TEENAGE girls in the tiny mountain kingdom of Swaziland are incensed over a five-year ban on their sex lives, complaining their boyfriends ”won’t wait”. King Mswati III, the last absolute monarch in Africa, announced two weeks ago the reintroduction of the age-old ”Umchwasho” chastity rite. It requires girls up 18 to wear […]