COUNTIES-Manukau flanker Koula Tukino has been ruled out of the Chiefs final Super 12 game against the Bulls in Pretoria. The New Zealand Colts flanker has been carrying a calf strain which worsened during the Chiefs training session overnight. “It isn’t getting better, so he’s not going to play,” Chiefs manager Steve Gilbert said. Paul […]
ERITREA’S government has ordered the Sudanese opposition to evacuate Sudan’s embassy in Asmara after an unannounced visit by a security team from Khartoum last week, a newspaper reported on Sunday. The evacuation order was issued to Sudan’s National Democratic Alliance on Friday, two days after a visit to Asmara by a Sudanese technical mission, Al-Rai […]
THE sacked deputy speaker of the Mpumalanga Legislature, Cynthia Maropeng, on Friday pleaded not guilty in the Nelspruit Regional Court on 36 charges of theft totalling R1,7-million, SABC radio news reports. Maropeng appeared with Wilson Ngwenya, Nicholas Siboza, and Alfred Mahlangu. All four, who were later released on bail, were executives of the Mpumalanga legislature, […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kigali | Monday 1.50pm. THE leadership of the main rebel movement in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been dissolved and a new interim body put in place, Radio Rwanda reported on Monday. The government radio said the interim leadership of the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) would eventually give way to […]
SARAH BULLEN, Cape Town | Monday 5.30pm THE Johannesburg Stock Exchange ended sharply weaker on Monday on worldwide dread that the Federal Reserve will on Tuesday announce increased United States interest rates. The concerns hit world markets after the announcement last week that US consumer inflation was higher than expected, triggering speculation that interest rates […]
HEALTH Minister Dr Nkosazana Zuma will on Monday become the first recipient of the World Health Organisation’s Tobacco Free World-award in Geneva, Switzerland. Zuma’s spokesman Vincent Hlongwane said from Geneva the award is in recognition for her “outstanding work in the area of tobacco control”. The award was the first of its kind. It will […]
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe, to the surprise of no-one, has said in Harare that he has no plans to retire in two year’s time, as reports two weeks ago suggested. According to news agency Xinhua, Mugabe said at a Harare press conference that he will leave in his own time, and on his own terms. Recent […]
PAN Africanist Congress MP Patricia de Lille is in a stable condition at a local hospital in Oudsthoorn after a car crash on Friday morning. De Lille and the PAC’s election manager, Avril Harding, were travelling in a party car when the accident occurred just after 11am about 30km outside Oudsthoorn. De Lille was bruised, […]
THE Zambian government has announced that it plans to round up and send home about 200000 street children. The exercise will take place in the capital Lusaka and the copperbelt region. The minister of community development and social services Dawson Lupunga says the government will train the youngsters to become responsible adults. He gives no […]
BRITISH tycoon Richard Branson is to buy a multi-million-dollar game reserve near South Africa’s famous Kruger National Park on the border with Mozambique, reports said on Saturday. The head of the Virgin empire will next month pay some R40-million for the 3500 hectare Ulusaba game reserve in the Mpumalanga province. He plans to upgrade the […]
PROP Michael Collins’ ongoing problems with a sternum injury has ruled him out of the Chiefs’ final Super 12 rugby match against the Bulls in Pretoria. Collins failed to pass a test in a scrummaging session under the eye of New Zealand Maori coach Matt Te Pou, who has taken over the running of the […]
AUSTRALIAN rugby captain John Eales said on Thursday he does not expect to play for the Wallabies before the World Cup in October. The giant second rower had hoped to make his return in the annual Tri-Nations series against South Africa and New Zealand but has been forced to delay his comeback while he recovers […]
LIBERIAN President Charles Taylor on Saturday reinstated six of 13 cabinet ministers he had earlier dismissed for failing to attend a prayer service for the nation that he had convened, a government statement said. “All other cabinet ministers and heads of public corporations not included on the list of officials to resume duties are hereby […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Monday 11.00am. SOUTH Africa’s first lady Graca Machel said in Pretoria on Sunday she knew the apartheid government was responsible for the 1986 plane crash which killed her former husband and the ex-president of Mozambique, Samora Machel. “We may not find evidence, but I know they did it,” she said on […]
GAUTENG Housing and Land Affairs MEC Dan Mofokeng will on Saturday present African National Congress veteran Walter Sisulu with the title deed to his house at Orlando, Soweto. The Department of Housing and Land Affairs has thus far issued some 84000 titles. This has provided secure tenure to more than 350000 families in the province. […]
KENYA’S pioneering political and business journal, the Weekly Review has folded. This week’s issue of the authoritative magazine, which goes on sale on Friday is the last one in a 24-year-old publishing history. No comments were available from the magazine’s owner-publisher, veteran journalist Hilary Gweno, but media sources said the magazine was closing down due […]
AMNESTY International demanded on Saturday the release of its Togo bureau staffer Antoine Koffi Nadjombe, arrested in Lome on Friday. The international human rights group also demanded the release of Nadjombe’s wife and two members of the Togolese League for the Defence and Promotion of Human Rights, Nestor Tengue and Francois Gayibor. Amnesty said it […]
SOUTH African and Free State prop Os du Randt has been given permission by the Free State Cheetahs management to play for the World XV in a festival match at Twickenham on May 23. The match, which is an annual event, will be played against English league champions Leicester. South Africans are regularly invited to […]
FRIDAY, 12.30PM: HARRY VILJOEN, coach of the Western Stormers and Western Province has quit. Viljoen’s decision to quit the game has come as a surprise to the rugby public, but players say they have known about his intention to leave the sport since the return of the Stormers from New Zealand ten days ago. Viljoen […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 7.30pm. A SERIES of blows have left Sundowns with little chance of surviving an African Champions League clash against Saint-Louisienne in Reunion on Saturday. The first was the late return of goalkeeper John Tlale, defenders Michael Manzini and Themba Mnguni, midfielder Joel Masilela and striker Daniel Mudau from national duty […]
NAMIBIA, who ended Bafana Bafana’s hopes in the opening round of the Cosafa Cup last year, are banking on their South African connection to keep their cup ambitions alive. They have included four players from South Africa’s Premier League in their squad for a first round play-off match against Malawi at the Chicheri Stadium in […]
DAVID SHAPSHAK, Pretoria | Friday 10.00pm. THE Chiefs defeated the Northern Bulls 39-31 in their Super 12 clash at Loftus Versveld stadium under lights on Friday. The Chiefs, who scored five tries to three, led 26-10 at the break. Playing only for honour in the last round of the Super 12 before the semi-finals, the […]
FORMER South African captain Tiaan Strauss remains unsigned by the New South Wales Waratahs for next year’s Super 12 rugby tournament. Strauss, who turns 33 next month, said on Wednesday he would probably re-sign for one last season of representative rugby with the Waratahs. “NSW have spoken to me and they’re interested in probably signing […]
HARRY Simon, who recently defended his World Boxing Organisation light middleweight title with a third round knock-out of Britain’s Kevin Lueshing, has the potential to dominate the light middleweight ranking for the next couple of years. So says Bert Blewett, a South African boxing expert and editor of the magazine, Boxing World and Simon’s trainer […]
FRIDAY, NOON: SOUTH African electricity parastatal Eskom plans to bid for parts of the Uganda Electricity Board’s operations when it is privatised, and is looking for other African investment opportunities, chairman Reuel Khoza said this week. A delegation led by Khoza is in the midst of a trip to Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, […]
DAVID SHAPSHAK, Cape Town | Saturday 5.00pm. THE under-performing Cats produced a startling upset by beating the log-leading Stormers 18-16 at Newlands Stadium on Saturday. The Cats, producing one of their best performances in the tournament to, led 10-6 at half time, scoring two tries to one. It was a tight, tough match between the […]
Richard Lee in Addis Ababa One hundred and thirty-one years after a British military force ransacked Maqdala, the mountain capital of the Ethiopian emperor Tewodros II, a campaign has been launched to convince Britain to return hundreds of artefacts stolen during the expedition. The 32 000-strong force was sent to rescue missionaries held captive by […]
THURSDAY, 1.15PM: DEVELOPING nations are expected to ask the World Trade Organisation for technical assistance in meeting their trade obligations, at the 50th anniversary of the organisation next week. President Nelson Mandela is joining United States President Bill Clinton, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, European Commission head Jacques Santer, and Switzerland’s Flavio Cotti, to celebrate […]
CABINET decisions on Wednesday included the approval of a notice exempting money-lending transactions up to R10000 from the provisions of the Usury Act, if they had a loan term of less than 36 months. This could be bad news for borrowers at the low end of the credit scale, who may face upnitive interest rates […]
A TEAM of French firefighters headed to Cote d’Ivoire’s economic capital on Friday to help control a gigantic blaze that threatening oil stocks near west Africa’s biggest refinery. A vast column of black smoke billowed over Abidjan as flames 12m continued to rage from GESTOCI, the oil stocks plant immediately next to the refinery. Late […]
Cyborgs have feelings too. When California neurosurgeon Gary Heit activated one of the implants he had just put into a human brain, the man burst into tears. Heit’s patient at Stanford university neurosurgery clinic was crying because, for the first time in 15 years, he was able to button up his own shirt. A debilitating […]
Chris McGreal It is a surprisingly well-kept secret for Nigeria. Only a few army officers know for certain what is in the country’s new Constitution. Once passed into law, it will, in theory, end 15 years of rule by military decree. Even Nigeria’s president-elect, Olusegun Obasanjo, who takes office this month, has not been told […]