ZIMBABWE, battling with crippling HIV/Aids statistics, has imposed a 3% tax on earnings to help pay for AIDS-related healthcare costs. The measure is expected to bring in about $26,6-million annually. While the tax is a step towards actively fighting the disease, critics are concerned because the country has no specific plan for how to use […]

LAWYERS from around the world will on Thursday gather in the Abuja, Nigeria for a two-day conference on west Africa’s energy problems in the new millennium. The West African Regional Energy Conference will also be attended by international energy experts. The conference is being organised by the energy and natural resources law section of the […]

MPUMALANGA’S outspoken former transport MEC, Jackson Mthembu, has finally been charged with wrecking a luxury government vehicle while driving without a license five months ago. He allegedly smashed the government-issue Mercedes Benz into a tree at high speed while on African National Congress business in Witbank just before the June elections. Mthembu, who now chairs […]

NEW Zealand Rugby Football Union chief executive David Moffett, who has taken the job as head of Australia’s Super League competition, is expected to be the first of several defections to rugby league after the World Cup. Star players like Joost van der Westhuizen and Jonah Lomu are targets for clubs in Australia and Britain. […]

POLICE on Tuesday confirmed the deaths of 12 people and the arrest of 56 suspects following communal clashes in Ajegunle, a Lagos slum, where a dusk-to-dawn curfew is now in force, state-run national television (NTA) reported. The clashes, which began at the weekend, reached their peak on Monday, when most of the deaths occurred and […]

AIR Botswana will replace thethree French-built ATR42-300 passenger planes destroyed by a suicide pilot last month with three new ATR42-500 planes before the end of the year,airline management said in a statement on Wednesday. “The three planes are being leased from Air Littoral in France. The first is due in Gaborone next week and will […]

WESTERN Cape education MEC Helen Zille said on Monday that algebra standard grade matric examination papers have been leaked from a school at Kraaifontein, Kuils River. According to Zille the examinations director raised the alarm when the high school in question requested more papers. The pupils have been allowed to write the examinations while an […]

ANGLO American chairman Julian Ogilvie Thompson told international mining executives in Toronto on Monday that the multinational is well placed to help mining achieve a balanced perspective on sustainable development. Speaking at the CIBC World Markets Mining Dinner Thompson said this is largely due to its exposure to the developing world in Africa and Latin […]

ANGLOGOLD on Tuesday served the first part of its share offer for Australian gold miner Acacia Resources Limited. The offer, which will be posted to Acacia shareholders in the middle of November, has been lodged with the Australian Stock Exchange. At the same time AngloGold has applied to the Australian Stock Exchange for a full […]

GHANA’S Ashanti Goldfields won a conditional three-year period of grace from its creditors on Monday by promising 15% of the company’s capital as collateral. Last week the gold producer had called for a 21-day stay of execution on multimillion-dollar debts owed to creditors in connection with hedge contracts. Business Report says that the contracts, intended […]