GOVERNMENT ground to a halt — literally — on Thursday when five cabinet ministers were trapped in a parliamentary lift for almost half-an-hour. One, Home Affairs Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi, recently suffered a similar ordeal and was jokingly blamed for the latest mishap by his colleagues. Buthelezi, who around a month ago was trapped with some […]

RUGBY World Cup authorities have taken a no-nonsense approach on foul play with Welshman Colin Charvis on Monday losing his appeal against a two-week suspension for punching Argentina’s Roberto Grau during the opening match of the tournament. At first, the 26-year-old accepted the ban but then decided to appeal in the hope of making himself […]

HIJACKERS carefully off-loaded the body of a woman on a stretcher outside the Elka Stadium in Soweto on Tuesday before racing off in the hearse they had just hijacked. Piet Swart, the owner of Koster Funeral Undertakers, said an employee of the undertakers, Joseph Kupu, was hijacked around 11.30am while taking the body from the […]

SWAZILAND’s minister of health and social welfare, Dr. Phetsile Dlamini, is piloting a health bill which calls for the death sentence for rapists with infectious diseases. According to the bill, rape convicts who infect their victims with the HIV/AIDS, whether knowingly or unknowingly, will face the death penalty in future if the law comes into […]

US Commerce Secretary William Daley on Thursday sounded out Egypt’s new pro-privatization prime minister Atef Ebeid about investment and business opportunities for US firms in Egypt. “As privatizations have moved forward in Egypt, there has been an increase in US investment because of those privatizations. The prime minister encourages US companies to look at these […]

HAMBURG’s Ghanaian striker Tony Yeboah has claimed he has been cleared by judicial authorities of an alleged tax evasion scam during his spell with German Bundesliga outfit Eintracht Frankfurt. German newspaper reports at the weekend claimed that Yeboah, Frankfurt’s former vice-President Bernd Holzenbein and another official at the club were under investigation for involvement in […]

NIKI MOORE, St Lucia | Wednesday 3.30pm. MOZAMBIQUE, Swaziland and South Africa will sign the region’s first international protocol on malaria control in Johannesburg on Thursday in an attempt to stem the spread of the often fatal disease. The new Lubombo Malaria Control protocol will enable the launch of a R50-million spraying programme in deep […]

MALAWI’S already endangered fish industry faces new crisis with the news that thousands of fish in Lake Malawi are dyingfrom apparent poisoning or infection. Southern African Development Community (SADC)project manager for fisheries in Malawi, Alexander Bulilani, said on Mondayinvestigations havebeen launched to determine thecause of the massive deaths. He said preliminary reports indicatedthe fish may […]

NIGERIA’s northern state of Zamfara is poised to introduce the Islamic Sharia legal system with effect from 27 October, following the signing into law of the bill passed by the state’s assembly by the governor, Ahmed Sani. This will make Zamfara the first of the 36 states of the Nigerian federation to adopt the Islamic […]