OWN CORRESPONDENT, Vienna | Monday OPEC ministers have agreed to raise oil supplies by 800 000 barrels a day in a bid to tame runaway crude oil prices and avert a consumer scare over fuel costs – but it could be months before prices ease. The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed to lift […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT and REUTERS, Harare | Monday RELATIVES of three people killed and one who was allegedly assaulted in the run-up to Zimbabwe’s elections have filed a $400m lawsuit against President Robert Mugabe in the United States. The lawsuit accusing Mugabe of human rights abuses was filed in US District Court in Manhattan on behalf […]

AT least 65 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in an attack with automatic rifles and hand weapons by a powerful Ethiopian tribe. Members of the Borena tribe attacked the smaller Garri tribe in the district of Arero, 700km south of Addis Ababa. Local authorities said at least 65 died in the massacre, […]

THE London-listed base metals group Billiton plc has confirmed that it has offered shareholders of Rio Algom Limited CD27 (Canadian dollars), or R129,87 a share, in pursuit of its bid for the Canadian zinc and copper producer. Billiton said the company had posted the offer to shareholders on Friday. Billiton is competing for the stake […]

EGYPTIAN President Hosni Mubarak has set October 18 as the date for launching the country’s “free” parliamentary elections. Voting has been divided into three stages to ensure compliance with an electoral law adopted in July, requiring a magistrate to be present in each of the country’s 15 000 or more polling places. Voters will choose […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT and REUTERS, Johannesburg | Monday SOUTH African President Thabo Mbeki has restoked the ongoing controversy over Aids in an interview with US-based news magazine Time, in which he reiterates that he believes HIV is not the only cause of the disease. “No, I am saying that you cannot attribute immune deficiency solely and […]

NDIVHUWO MUSETHA and JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Johannesburg | Sunday PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki is expected to announce the axing of two provincial premiers as well as a major cabinet reshuffle when he returns to South Africa from the United Nations Millenium 2000 Summit of world leaders in New York. Speculation is mounting that the African National Congress […]

RADIO 702’s station manager Dan Moyane has denied all knowledge of an apology letter sent to Health Minister Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang by the station’s owner, Primedia, after an outcry by the ANC over an on-air row between Radio 702 talk-show host John Robbie and Tshabalala-Msimang. Robbie allegedly told the minister that she was talking ”rubbish” […]

BRITISH paratroops have attacked a rebel base in the Sierra Leone jungle, freeing six British soldiers and a Sierra Leonean officer held hostage since August 25. Britain’s defence minister, Geoffrey Hoon, said the decision to mount the rescue followed repeated threats by the maverick West Side Boys hostage takers to kill their captives and reports […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT and REUTERS, Luanda | Monday SEVEN elephants airlifted from South Africa are settling into their new home in the Angolan veld, spearheading an infusion of wildlife into the war-torn country’s decimated national reserves. The elephants’ new life in the grassy river plains of Kissama, south of the Angolan capital Luanda, began after a […]