ALPHIE, the baby chimpanzee rescued from a cage in Krugersdorp by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, is flying to Zambia on Friday. Alphie, who was found chained in a small cage in the home of a South African truck driver two weeks ago, is going to the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage, a private sanctuary in […]
SPRINGBOK James Dalton faces assault charges following a fracas in a Johannesburg health club in which a staff member was injured, newspaper reports said Wednesday. Health club employee Bruce Johnson (27) laid charges of assault against Dalton following the incident. An unnamed police source told The Star newspaper that Johnson had a number of facial […]
NIGERIAN footballer Peter Rufai prefers football to the prospect of becoming king of a million people in succession to his late father. Spanish press reports said on Tuesday that the 35-year-old reserve goalie for Spanish first division side Deportivo de la Coruna is being urged to return home to become king of the Idimu in […]
OVERALL business confidence rose by one percentage point but remained at a very low level during the first quarter of the year, according to a survey released by the Bureau for Economic Research on Tuesday. The bureau said the small rise in its index suggests that the recessionary conditions of the second half of 1998 […]
THE Department of Justice has confirmed that two French magistrates are in the country to investigate the whereabouts of former senior Elf Aquitaine oil executive Alfred Sirven. Magistrates Eva Joly and Laurence Vichnievsky are investigating Sirven, who fled France in 1996 after his boss, Loik Le Floch-Prigent, was detained for alleged fraud while he was […]
SHARES in pharmaceutical firm South African Druggists rose on Tuesday morning after Fedsure said last Friday that it is close to tying up a long-running bid to win SAD’s health care interests. Fedsure announced that it had sold its 34% majority shareholding in SAD to financial group Investec for R33 a share. Under the deal, […]
POP idol Michael Jackson said on Tuesday he will stage two concerts in June to raise funds for South African President Nelson Mandela’s children’s fund, the Red Cross and UNESCO. The first concert will be held in the Olympic stadium in Seoul on June 25, and will be followed two days later by a performance […]
INFLATION in Nigeria rose sharply in the second half of 1998, hitting an estimated annual rate of 15% in December, according to a government report published on Wednesday. “Inflation rose from a low level of 6% in the 12-month period ending March 1998 to an estimated 15% in December 1998,” says the report prepared by […]
A GROUP of armed Liberian soldiers who stormed a village in the western part of the country looted homes and raped several women, independent radio reports said in the capital, Monrovia, on Wednesday. The incident occurred last week in Dambala, 110km west of Monrovia, in a town bordering neighbouring Sierra Leone. The rampaging soldiers, who […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 3.30pm. GREATER Johannesburg is R2,1-billion in debt, R1-billion of which is irrecoverable, says Kenny Fihla, chairman of Johannesburg’s Transformation Lekgotla [committee]. Interest owed on that debt is at least R721-million. The debt burden threatens to sideline eGoli 2002, the inner-city renewal plan touted by the Lekgotla. “No financial institution will […]