Staff Reporter

US human rights activist Jesse Jackson, who was scheduled to visit Freetown on Monday, has cancelled his visit after checking into hospital, a US embassy spokesman in Abidjan said. Jackson entered hospital in the United States on Friday, the spokesman said, without giving details on his condition. Jackson is the US special envoy for the […]

EGYPTIAN and US investigators are said to be planning a joint report for release on Monday on the fateful final moments of Flight 990 as officials dismissed suggestions of a diplomatic row over the inquiry. Amid Egyptian anger over speculation an alleged statement by one of the pilots indicated he may have crashed the plane […]

ETHIOPIA’S former dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam, who lives in exile in Zimbabwe, travelled to South Africa this week for medical treatment, an official said Friday. A spokesman for the South African High Commission in Harare confirmed a report in the Independent newspaper that Mengistu entered South Africa on a Zimbabwean diplomatic passport. Diplomatic sources said […]

FOUR neatly dressed Orlando West boys aged between seven and 10 years again appeared in the Protea Magistrate’s Court on Thursday to face charges of sexually assaulting a two-year-old girl. The boys, dressed in checked shirts and denims — seemingly unaware of what was happening to them — made their way to the dock while […]

SOUTH Africa and the United Arab Emirates signed a defence cooperation accord on Thursday at the Dubai air show, to work to boost arms sales and co-operate in military training and joint exercises. The accord, which took three years to negotiate, was signed by Emirati armed forces chief of staff Lieutenant General Sheikh Mohammad bin […]

MOROKA Swallows’ Brazilian-born coach Walter Da Silva was on Wednesday night the victim of a three-hour kidnap ordeal when he was surprised by two men at his home in Johannesburg. Da Silva was forced into a car and was driven around Befordview while being threatened by the men. Da Silva was allegedly told not to […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pietermaritzburg | Friday 8.25pm. SRI Lanka A were looking steady on the second day of their match against South Africa A in Pietermaritzburg on Friday. The locals took their first innings total from its overnight 192 for five to 296, and the Sri Lankans replied with 64/2 at stumps. Play started late because […]

A TOUGH Castle Premiership clash between Orlando Pirates and Kaiser Chiefs at the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg on Saturday was sparked by a classic goal by Pirates’ Dennis Lota fifteen minutes before the final whistle. Lota dribbled past three defenders to gently slot the ball into an open goal. Pirates took the game 1-nil worth […]

THE Nigerian panel investigating human rights abuses has already received about 30000 petitions from about 10000 victims or perpetrators. These include submissions by high-ranking officials in the former military government headed by General Sani Abacha, according to Chukwudifu Oputa, head of the Human Rights Violation Investigation Panel of Nigeria. Oputa and seven other officials with […]

THE Nigerian government on Wednesday signed a $1-billion oilfield development agreement with Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell. The EA/EJA oil field, estimated to have reserves of 350-million barrels, is expected to go into operation in the second half of next year. The accord between the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and Shell Petroleum Development Company is aimed […]

CABINET on Wednesday approved the licensing of two additional national mobile cellular telecommunication networks, details of which will be announced by Telecoms Minister Jay Naidoo on Thursday. The licensing of two new networks was recommended by the South African Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (Satra) two months ago, despite the opposition of the two existing networks, Vodacom […]

Not quite movie of the week It’s that old adultery theme again. It has become as much of a clich and a formula as most of the rest of Hollywood’s stock-in- trade, predictably playing out the conflict between the demands of family and the lure of freedom (or just excitement). And, as if influenced by […]

Dylan Evans ALMOST LIKE A WHALE: THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES UPDATED by Steve Jones (Doubleday) Steve Jones, the lovable professor of genetics at University College, London, has re-written On the Origin of Species. His new book, Almost Like a Whale, has the same format as Darwin’s great work, right down to the chapter titles and […]

Wally Mbhele and Paul Kirk A senior National Intelligence Agency (NIA) official was arrested on Monday in Durban for the alleged rape of a Department of Foreign Affairs official. Both were assigned duties at the high-powered Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM). The matter was kept under wraps as government officials believed it would “embarrass” […]

ORLANDO Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs fans will be ale to flaunt their support in an unusual way when cellular company Vodacom introduces branded cellular packs specially tailored for fans of the two soccer giants. The packs will include a state-of-the-art cellphone with an interchangeable Pirates or Chiefs front panel and a prepaid cellular card and […]

Cameron Duodu LETTER FROM THE NORTH I remember an immigration officer at Jan Smuts airport once asking me, “Is Ghana in the Commonwealth?” “Yes,” I said. He waved me through. But a Nigerian, whose country was also in the Commonwealth, was held up for several minutes. When he finally emerged to join me in the […]

Laurie Anderson has a new take on Moby Dick. She tells Renaud Machart all about it I caught up with Laurie Anderson in Charleston, South Carolina, in June. She was having breakfast at the hotel where she and her entourage were staying during the Spoleto Festival, an event that the Italian-American composer Gian Carlo Menotti […]

Heather Hogan Johannesburg police officer Lourentius Alberts appeared in court this week on charges of indecently assaulting a neighbour’s 11-year-old daughter. The girl’s mother said in her statement to the police: “I had some friends over for the afternoon and my daughter was playing outside. That evening I was standing washing dishes when she came […]

THE R7,6-million defamation lawsuit brought against United Cricket Board managing director Ali Bacher by former Pakistani player Younis Ahmed was postponed indefinitely on Wednesday. etv news reported that Ahmed asked the Johannesburg High Court to postpone the case as he is not ready to proceed. He brought the lawsuit after Bacher faxed a document, apparently […]

Shaun Harris TAKING STOCK Well, it seems the niceties are over. Despite what Nedcor says about a “friendly” merger, its bid for control of Standard Bank Investment Corporation (Stanbic) has effectively turned hostile. Up to now, this has been the stuff of boardroom drama, a clash of banking titans that makes good copy in the […]

Ann Eveleth Minister of Education Kader Asmal is considering expanding his planned national literacy campaign to include a focus on the lack of reading by South Africans – and plans to ask Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel for more money for learning support materials. Asmal’s adviser, Allan Taylor, told a reading sector meeting this week […]

Heather Hogan Leandro de Beer, a security officer in Potchefstroom, arrested three armed robbers by tricking them into thinking he was a police dog. The employee of Mooi Rivier Protection was patrolling the area when he spotted three men attempting to break into a shop. He shouted at them and they fled. De Beer chased […]

A JOHANNESBURG man who allegedly killed his wife and hid her body in a freezer for more than two weeks at their home will be arrested as soon as he has recovered from a self-inflicted stab wound. The suspect stabbed himself in the throat when police arrived at his house to question him in connection […]

David Robbins All public universities and technikons are partially funded by the state via a formula which calculates individual institutional funding according to a set of established criteria. In a tertiary sector in considerable flux, a deal of dissatisfaction has been expressed about the formula currently in use. There’s also talk of using a modified […]

Mercedes Sayagues This week, the Mozambican government revoked the controversial concession of 236 000ha granted in 1996 to American James Ulysses Blanchard III, who died in March this year. Officially, Blanchard paid nothing for the land stretching south of Maputo to KwaZulu-Natal. The area is likely to be declared a World Heritage Site for its […]

Peter Dickson The Eastern Cape government’s sorry saga of in-house corruption and “creative bookkeeping” amid a legacy of poverty and neglect has been the butt of post- apartheid political satire for much of the last five years. This week, for the first time since 1994 and amid growing public outrage and open scorn at Bisho’s […]

REFEREE Falla Ndoye of Senegal and assistant referee Ali Tomusange of Uganda will represent Africa at the first world club championships from January 5-14 in Brazil, the organisers said on Wednesday. Corinthians and Vasco da Gama of Brazil, Manchester United of England, Real Madrid of Spain, Al-Nasr of Saudi Arabia, Nexaca of Mexico, South Melbourne […]

things to come Are universities in turmoil or in ferment? Are they collapsing, or merely in flux? David Robbins looks at the tertiary sector The troubles afflicting South African universities and technikons are many, and dramatic: campus protests, lecture boycotts, revelations of institutional collapse, widespread financial investigations, crippling amounts outstanding from unpaid student fees, rumours […]

Dignitaries were impressed, but ordinary people were puzzled or unaffected by the monarch’s visit last week. Katy Bauer went to gawk at the queen To live, not as a human being, but as a symbol, is the terrible fate of the British monarch. Fortunately for Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, this state of affairs seems […]

Among other things, the new Firearms Control Bill will deny people guilty of crimes of violence the right to own a firearm. Barry Streek reports Gun-free zones, such as bars and casinos, are to be created in terms of the new Firearms Control Bill, and ordinary people will not be allowed to carry firearms there. […]

A new photo exhibition takes the mask as its inspiration. Wayne Robbins investigates It’s a late Saturday afternoon in 1996. Corner of Rissik and Wolmarans streets, Johannesburg. A boy finds a paper mask in a bin, puts it on. African kid in a discarded European mask. Graeme Williams takes a picture. For Williams, photography is […]

Public works programmes in the Western Cape have proved to be an effective method of poverty relief, reports Barry Streek Public works programmes in the Western Cape have, in general, been successful and more cost-effective in transferring benefits to the poor using direct cash grants. Researchers at the University of Cape Town’s Southern African labour […]