Staff Reporter

POLICE in crime ridden Northern Province have been stranded in their offices for the past three weeks after the province failed to pay its petrol bill. All police stations in the Nebo, Sekhukhune, Jane Furse and Motetema areas north of Pietersburg were effectively hamstrung when BP cut petrol supplies to the province because the police […]

ANDREW MUCHINERIPI, Johannesburg | Monday 10.00am. MANNING Rangers leaped, Free State Stars sweeped and Orlando Pirates creeped into the Rothmans Cup semi-finals with title favourites Sundowns set to join them next weekend. While victory for Rangers over newly-promoted Classic came as no surprise, the 5-1 aggregate margin certainly did after the Tembisa club had taken […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Monday 9.55am THE National Union of Mineworkers is preparing to do battle with gold mining firm Placer Dome, which has retrenched some 3000 of its workers at its Placer Dome/Western Areas joint venture mine on the West Rand. NUM secretary-general Gwede Mantashe and NUM regional chairperson Obed Maila on Friday […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Bulawayo | Monday 10.50am ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe said on Sunday he is ready to compensate victims of political violence that took place in the early 1980s, the state news agency Ziana reported. Mugabe was speaking at a church service in Bulawayo, capital of the western Matabeleland province which was hardest hit in […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Monday 8.40pm SOUTH African flags, at half-mast after former Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere died Thursday, will be raised when he is buried at the weekend, President Thabo Mbeki announced on Monday. The president initially ordered the flags to be lowered from Friday until Tuesday to honour Nyerere, who died of leukemia […]

LIBYA and Russia signed an agreement on economic and trade cooperation on Thursday, Libyan state television reported. The agreement was signed in Tripoli by Libyan Energy Minister Abdullah al-Badri and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov, who has responsibility for his country’s military-industrial complex. Klebanov met Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi on Wednesday and gave him […]

SARAH BULLEN, Cape Town | Monday 5.00pm LOCAL markets lost ground on Monday as it followed United States and world markets lower following Wall Street’s heavy losses on Friday. It was widely anticipated that the Johannesburg Stock Exchange would lose ground on the day after US markets tumbled 2,6% after after Federal Reserve chairman Alan […]

FOUR people were killed and 20 people injured when a Metro Rail suburban train hit a stationary goods train on a track between Crown and New Canada stations near Maraisburg, on the West Rand, on Friday afternoon. “The goods train was waiting for the signal to change so that it could proceed, at about 3.40pm, […]

A SUSPECT has been arrested in Johannesburg in connection with the shooting of 13 people in Greenfields and Mandela Park. The 35-year-old man is to be charged with the murder of seven people in Mandela Park on July 19. He is also linked to the shooting of four people and injuring of another three at […]

US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright embarks on Sunday on a six-nation tour of sub-Saharan Africa to focus on pushing peace, democracy and economic liberalization and praising reform efforts. Reduced by four days due to domestic political considerations and to make room to attend the funeral of former Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere, the trip begins […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Saturday 6.00pm. ZIMBABWE need to make 148 with nine second innings wickets remaining to avoid an innings defeat by Australia at the end of play Saturday in the one-off inaugural cricket Test in Harare. With Zimbabwe fighting back gamely the prospects of them making Australia bat again are still promising. After […]

THE Security Council voted on Friday to send a team of 30 civilians to maintain a United Nations presence in Angola, a country described as the most dangerous in Africa. On August 23, senior UN officials told the Council that Angolans knew “a level of despair that exists virtually nowhere else in the world.” Three […]

TONGAN prop Ngalu Tau’ofo has been banned for 28 days following his dismissal in Friday’s World Cup clash against England at Twickenham. Tau’ofo, a former police officer who plays for Pontypridd, was sent off by Australian referee Wayne Erickson four minutes before half time. His punch from behind on England flanker Richard Hill reduced the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Edinburgh | Saturday 6.25pm. SCOTLAND booked their place in the World Cup quarter-final play-offs with a 48-0 victory over Spain in the final group A match at a near-empty Murrayfield Stadium on Saturday. Just 17500 fans were there to see the Five Nations champions run up seven tries to set up a clash […]

SOME 4,2 million voters head to the polls on Sunday to restore democracy to Niger in a presidential vote brought about by the assassination of the previous incumbent. The elections were promised by Niger’s military junta on the heels of their putsch in April, when presidential guards gunned down president Ibrahim Bare Mainassara as he […]

TELFORD VICE, Durban | Sunday 5.00pm. FOR much of Natal’s second innings, they seemed intent on throwing this match away with injudicious hook shorts. Craig Wilson was the recipient of four catches – to equal the Boland record for an innings – as Mark Bruyns, Dale Benkenstein, Jonty Rhodes and Shaun Pollock all tried to […]

SEVERAL hundred mourners, including family members and Tanzanian officials, attended a memorial service on Saturday at Westminster Cathedral in London, for Tanzania’s former president Julius Nyerere. The widow of the African elder statesman, who died in London Thursday of leukemia, entered the ornate London cathedral behind her husband’s casket, which was draped in a Tanzanian […]

SARAH BULLEN, Cape Town | Friday 1.25pm THE government raised total revenue of R17,752-billion in September, the Department of Finance announced on Thursday. This puts the government above target and presents a very encouraging picture of the fiscal position, economists said. The figure was 13,5% higher than in September 1998 and was made up of […]

A LAST minute try by winger Christophe Dominici gave France a 28-19 win over Fiji in Toulouse on Saturday and landed them the Group C crown – Fiji finish runners-up. An error ridden match in which the French, who led 13-3 at the break, scored three tries to Fiji’s one was enlivened by a superb […]

THE medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), which was awarded the Nobel prize for peace on Friday, counts Somalia as among the toughest environments it works in. The governemnt in the Horn of African country collapsed in 1991 and since then the usual infrastructure of state, medical facilities included, have crumbled as clans […]

Former South African president Nelson Mandela called for greater world cooperation in Tehran on Saturday as he arrived for a three-day visit with Iranian leaders.

MALAWI’S President Bakili Muluzi on Thursday launched the country’s second cellular network, Celtel Malawi, with a challenge for telecommunicationcompanies to focus on providing coverage to thecountry’s impoverished rural regions. Celtel Malawi is a joint venture between the United Kingdom’sMobile Systems,Malawi’s state-owned Posts and Telecommunications Corporation and the government’s main investment arm, the Malawi Development Corporation. […]

AMBITIOUS English rugby club Leeds are trying to sign up New Zealand World Cup hero Jonah Lomu. If the deal goes through it could mean the giant All Blacks winger playing rugby league and rugby union at the Yorkshire club when the tournament ends. Gary Hetherington, chief executive of Leeds Rhinos (league) and Leeds Tykes […]

ALL tourist guides in South Africa will have to be registered with the government in future in terms of the Tourism Amendment Bill, which was tabled in Parliament on Friday. The new national registrar of tourist guides will be located in the Department of Environment Affairs and Tourism, replacing the register administered at present by […]

WITH a single wicket standing and 72 more runs to get to avoid the follow-on, Easterns are in trouble in their second A section match – a week after losing to Northerns by 222 runs with a day to spare. In fact, the rain which prevented play until 1pm and the bad light which ended […]

FOR four overs on Saturday, Griqualand West got the faintest smell of victory in their Supersport Series match against Eastern Province at St George’s Park on Saturday. It was then that the hosts collapsed from 220 for three to 225 for six and suddenly a game that had been destined for the draw heap, got […]

THE head of South Africa’s Medicines Control Council has announced that the abortion pill will be available in the country by the middle of 2000. Helen Rees said research into the use of non-surgical abortions in the public health system is to begin in January. Pilot programmes in urban and rural areas will be conducted […]

Leading try scorers 5 – Jonah Lomu (New Zealand) 4 – Keith Wood (Ireland), Jeff Wilson (New Zealand) Leading points scorers 52 – Silao Leaega (Samoa) 49 – Gareth Rees (Canada) Most tries by one player in a match 4 – Keith Wood (Ireland v U.S.) 3 – Toutai Kefu (Australia v Romania), Ugo Mola […]

THE Security Council voted on Friday to send a team of 30 civilians to maintain a United Nations presence in Angola, a country described as the most dangerous in Africa. On August 23, senior UN officials told the Council that Angolans knew “a level of despair that exists virtually nowhere else in the world.” Three […]

FOREIGN Affairs Director-General Jackie Selebi is tipped to become South Africa’s new police chief when Police Commissioner George Fivaz’s contract expires early next year. Cabinet agreed on Wednesday to reshuffle several director-generals in the criminal justice and security sectors, the Business Day reports. Sources told the newspaper the reshuffle has been prompted by the need […]

ENGLAND confirmed their place in the quarter-final play-offs of the World Cup on Friday, scoring 13 tries in a 101-10 procession against Tonga at Twickenham. England were given a helping hand when Tonga’s prop Ngalu Taufo’ou was sent off three minutes before half-time for flooring Richard Hill. Clive Woodward’s side were already in control at […]

OMINOUSLY for Western Province, Free State are just 52 runs behind with loads of batting to come. A day which belonged wholly to the home side began with Allan Donald ripping through what remained of the Province innings to finish with 5-47. Donald bowled 6.3 overs for a return of 3-13 on Friday – and […]