WEDNESDAY, 7.00PM: LOCAL currency and bond markets reacted well to Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’s speech at Parliament’s snap debate on the rand and its effect on the economy on Wednesday, reports Sarah Bullen. The stock market, however, did not follow the currency’s lead in making significant gains, While dealers said Manuel delivered good solid comments […]

KING Hassan II of Morocco was hospitalized in Rabat on Friday with a respiratory complaint, the official news agency MAP reported, citing a communique from the ministry of the Royal House. The monarch, who celebrated his 70th birthday on July 9, entered Rabat’s civilian Avicenne hospital at around midday with ”an acute pneumopathy warranting cardio-respiratory […]

THE Western Province Rugby Union announced on Thursday that only standing room tickets were available for the Tri-Nations Test between South Africa and Australia at Newlands on August 14. Tickets are priced from R75 (grandstand) and R50 (Danie Craven stand) and go on sale from Monday July 26 at Computicket outlets in the Western Cape.

JANET GUTTSMAN, Washington | Friday 12.30pm THE United States backed a hotly contested plan to sell International Monetary Fund gold to pay for debt relief on Thursday, but promised to step up the search for a market-friendly alternative. A Treasury official, reacting to complaints from lawmakers opposed to the planned IMF gold sales, said Washington […]

A SENIOR Nigerian army officer has been appointed as the new commander of Ecomog, the West African regional intervention force in Sierra Leone. Brigadier General Gabriel Kpemba, formerly of the directorate of operations at the army headquarters, replaces Major General Felix Mujakpero, who was Ecomog commander for six months. Nigeria has the largest contingent in […]

THE speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives, Ibrahim Buhari, was detained for questioning by security agents over claims he lied over his age and qualifications for election, press reports said on Thursday. The reports in various newspapers said Buhari, who announced on Wednesday his decision to “step aside” until completion of an investigation into […]

THE government has no policy which forces rape suspects to undergo HIV/Aids tests to verify whether they are carriers of the deadly disease, the Justice Ministry said on Wednesday. The statement responded to an open letter from the Brazilian Ambassador Oto Agripino Maia, Ambassador of Brazil in which he complained that the government had not […]

UGANDAN foreign affairs minister Alfred Mubanda said on Wednesday that the country’s diplomatic missions abroad have no money. “It is just a litany of mourns and groans. There is no money, at times we cannot even move the diplomatic bags,” the minister told a shocked parliamentary committee. “Our embassy in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) has been […]

WEDNESDAY, 10.30AM: THE first leg of the 1998 Rothmans Cup soccer competition got under way on Tuesday with preliminary round matches in Cape Town and Durban. Seven Stars beat AmaZulu 2-1 in their match at the Chatsworth stadium in Durban. George Dernaley and Jerome Jansen scored for Stars, while Simon Magagula saved face for AmaZulu. […]

RWANDA has announced it will lift visa requirements for US citizens, to reciprocate a similar move by the US government. Rwandan Foreign Minister Augustine Iyamuremye told the Rwanda News Agency the new US visa regulations allow a free five-year multiple entry visa for Rwandans seeking to pursue studies, tourism and business. The Rwandan government had […]