PHIL CHETWYND, New York | Tuesday WITH fists punching the air and cheers engulfing the vast trading floor, the world’s biggest stock exchange came back to life on Monday after its longest closure in 70 years, and fended off disaster. ”Welcome back to the greatest market on the face of the earth,” proclaimed New York […]

GOVERNMENT is to build a R12,6-million presidential arrival and departure facility at Cape Town’s airport to help beef up security, according to Public Works Minister Stella Sigcau. Briefing the media in Parliament, she said the tender process for the contract, to be undertaken on behalf of the SA National Defence Force (SANDF), would be fast-tracked. […]

The private car of the mayor of Engcobo, near Umtata in the Eastern Cape, was set alight early on Sunday morning. Mayor Mthetheli Xundu said the incident occurred at about 3am. ”I heard the alarm of the car going off,” he said. ”When I looked outside the car was ablaze. With the help of neighbours […]

FINANCIAL ratings firm Standard & Poor’s said on Thursday it did not believe Tuesday’s attacks at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon would have a long-term adverse impact on the economy. “Our economic, financial and debt analysts continue to assess the situation and we are convinced that this will not have a negative long-standing […]

GRIFFIN SHEA, Hwedza, Zimbabwe | Monday DESPITE three separate agreements aimed at resolving Zimbabwe’s land crisis, three more people have died during the last week as violence in the countryside rages unchecked. The latest deaths came on Saturday, when two people died during a clash on a white-owned farm in eastern Zimbabwe. A 70-year-old farmer […]

POLICE have detained more than 300 people in Lagos over Christian-Muslim violence that left more than 500 dead in the city of Jos last week. It was not clear if all would be charged with some offences or if some had already been released after questioning. Nigeria was shaken by violence that broke out in […]

RWANDAN-backed rebels said on Sunday around 2 650 child soldiers are waiting to be demobilised in the territory it controls in the east of the DRC. Crispen Kabasele, head of exterior relations for the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD), said the majority of the children had been recruited by Alliance of Democratic Forces for the […]

LUNGA MASUKU, Nhlangano, Swaziland | Monday KING Mswati III of Swaziland put a dampener on festivities at his 33rd birthday celebrations recently when he announced a five year sex ban for young maidens in the tiny mountain kingdom. In a bid to reduce the soaring HIV/Aids figures the king saw fit to announce the revival […]

THE Bank of England sold 20 tons of gold, or 643_200 ounces, at $280,00 a troy ounce on Wednesday. The scheduled sale, which came in a disorientated market after yesterday’s US terror attack, was 4,3 times oversubscribed, with a scaling factor of 61,3818% applied to the successful bids at $280,00, the Bank of England said. […]