OWN CORRESPONDENT, Austin | Monday REPUBLICAN George W Bush has claimed victory in the US presidential race, after the state of Florida declared him the winner of its bitterly disputed vote count, but Democrat Al Gore has vowed new legal moves to contest Bush’s ascension to the presidency. Gore’s lawyers have said the vice president […]

INKATHA Freedom Party mayoral candidate for Durban, Gladwin Bheka Ndlela, has denied allegations in a Sunday newspaper that he irregularly appointed four assistant directors in his department, party spokesman Musa Zondi said. The Sunday Times reported that Ndlela, the director for sport and recreation in the KwaZulu-Natal department of education, made the appointments in January. […]

SOUTH Africa’s government has approved the appointment of Pali Lehohla as the new head of Statistics South Africa. Lehohla joined the body, which compiles most of the country’s key economic indicators, in 1995 and has last served as Chief Director of Demography responsible for carrying out population censuses. He replaces acting Stats SA head Ros […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday THE South African government has given Swissair until February next year to exercise its option to acquire a further 10% stake in South African Airways (SAA). ”The South African government, Transnet and Sairgroup have agreed to extend this option for a period of three months, and this option would expire […]

ITALY and the United States have cancelled official debt owed by Nigeria amounting to $2.8bn. Of this, Italy wrote off $2.4bn and the United States $475m. Nigeria is campaigning for massive relief on its foreign debt, which the government’s latest calculations put at $28.8bn. Most is owed to Paris Club official creditors, including $19bn in […]

ENGINEERS have successfully test-fired a new hot-water cannon designed to help a South African team climb to the top of an ice-shelf in Antarctica. The new invention is installed on the research and supply vessel SA Agulhas, which in December will take a South African National Antarctic Expedition (SANAE) team to Antarctica. The cannon is […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Vosloorus | Sunday South African soccer hung its head in shame yesterday as crowd violence forced the final of the African Women’s Championship to be abandoned. Three people were injured and were admitted to the nearby Natalspruit Hospital, in Katlehong on the East Rand. Violence erupted just after the Nigerians had scored their […]

ONE of Mozambique’s most outspoken independent journalists, Carlos Cardoso, has been assassinated in central Maputo. Cardoso, the editor of the independent daily newspaper Metical, was ambushed near his city centre office by unknown assailants just before 6pm on Wednesday. Cardoso has been very vocal in his criticism of hardline factions within both the ruling Frelimo […]

TANZANIA has become the 36th country to ban imports of meat and meat products of cloven-hoofed animals from South Africa following the recent outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in KwaZulu-Natal. It is not known how much meat Tanzania imports from South Africa, but a supermarket owner in the Tanzanian capital, Rashid Mohamed, said South African meat […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Sunday ABOUT 2000 men marched through central Cape Town this weekend to protest the high rate of abuse of women and children in South Africa, estimated to have among the highest rates of rape in the world. Church bells pealed in support as the men marched to parliament led by […]