WEST Africa’s regional bourse, the BRVM, essentially composed of Ivorian stocks, was little changed on the week, but the all-share index has lost 7% from the start of the year. Brokers blame a lack of foreign liquidity after a December military coup in Ivory Coast, with investors waiting for an agreement on budget aid to […]

THE United States on Saturday dispatched two C-130 military planes based in Germany to help the rescue effort in flood-ravaged Mozambique. A US Air Force spokesman at Ramstein said that five more planes will leave on Sunday. The two planes carrying 40 people including flight crews and support personnel, are the first of seven C-130s […]

THE role of former apartheid president PW Botha in bloody cross-border police raids is likely to come under the spotlight in the next few days as a truth commission hearing into a 1985 ambush in Lesotho enters its second week. Former police death squad leader Eugene de Kock is due to testify before the Truth […]

SOUTH Africa and Brazil have completed preparatory talks on trade cooperation that could lead to a free trade agreement between countries of southern Africa and South America “in a matter of years”, Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin said on Thursday. Addressing the media after a meeting with visiting Brazilian Foreign Minister Luiz Felipe Lampreia, […]

RESCUE teams were on Saturday night still searching for the survivors or the wreckage of the Cessna 414 which went missing in Botswana on Wednesday. Civil Aviation said thick vegetation after heavy rains was hampering the search. A Johannesburg-based courier company, Skynet Worldwide Express, on Friday confirmed that one of its senior executives was on […]

NIGERIA’S share index slid on poor sentiment for a second week and dealers said share prices would not be helped by an ethnic and religious crisis which has cost hundreds of lives. Food company Cadbury dropped almost 16% lower but conglomerate, whose share price has recently been in the doldrums, made a gain of more […]

THE Weather Bureau predicts more rain for southern parts of Mozambique and north-eastern parts of South Africa for Sunday afternoon. In a statement on Saturday the Weather Bureau also warned that the previously weakened cyclone Gloria had intensified and moved into the Mozambique Channel by Saturday afternoon, after having crossed over southern Madagascar.

PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki held talks in Abu Dhabi on Saturday with his Emirati counterpart, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan, the official news agency WAM reported. It said the two leaders discussed cooperation between their countries, without giving details. South Africa and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have boosted trade and air links since the end […]

KENYA’S shares dipped 0,63% during the week as despondent investors ignored some good corporate results. Brokers said that both foreign and institutional investors are steering clear of the market, unhappy about the prospects for economic recovery this year.