AIDS researchers said the deaths of five women in HIV/Aids drug trials were more likely the result of flaws in the handling of the trials than problems with the drugs themselves. The researchers were responding to the controversial decision by the government this week to suspend recruitment of new subjects for anti-retroviral drug trials after […]

COSATU is due to start of round of discussions with government on possible job losses associated with the introduction of the southern African free trade agreement in September, DTI director-general Alistair Ruiters said on Thursday. Trade ministers from the 14 Southern African Development Community (SADC) member countries reached agreement on the free trade protocol last […]

AT least 50 people are being held by police on Tanzania’s semi-autonomous islands of Zanzibar and Pemba following weekend clashes between police and civilians. Most of the privately owned Tanzanian newspapers are reporting that hundreds of armed police have been deployed in Zanzibar streets and are beating civilians. Police are also claiming that four of […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 6.00pm FINANCE department director-general Maria Ramos said the department expects a marginal decline in its 1999/2000 budget deficit after its revenue collection came in way above expectations during the fiscal year. Ramos said that the department collected R200,3-billion during the fiscal year. The figure exceeds the estimate Finance Minister Trevor […]

PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki has voiced his sorrow at the death on Thursday of Tunisia’s first president Habib Bourguiba and praised his efforts for the development of Africa. Bourguiba, Tunisia’s first president after independence from France in 1956, died after a long illness. He was 96. Africa “feels greatly indebted to the efforts of leaders such […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Sydney | Saturday 12.00pm. AUSTRALIAN Cricket Board officials said on Saturday the Australian team’s one-day tour of South Africa will not be affected by allegations of match-fixing involving South African captain Hansie Cronje and three of his teammates. The ACB would not comment on the allegations but chief executive Malcolm Speed confirmed it […]

THE high school pupil who allegedly threatened a teacher with a knife will be expelled from the school system after he was found guilty of attempted murder. The 21-year-old Andrew Babeile also stabbed a fellow pupil in the neck with a pair of sewing scissors outside the Vryburg High School tuckshop last February. Babeile will […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Saturday 12.15pm. THE South African government is set to intervene on behalf of South Africa’s cricket captain Hansie Cronje and three other players, Herschelle Gibbs, Pieter Strydom and Nicky Boje who were charged with match-fixing by Indian police. “The South African government is to contact the Indian government to convey […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 4.00pm. Trott Moloto has decided to change tack and allow Bafana Bafana to play a zonal defense when they come up against Lesotho’s Likoena at the Setsoto Stadium on Sunday in their 2002 World Cup qualifier clash reports the Sowetan. Moloto made himself unpopular with soccer fans when he decided […]