WEDNESDAY, 3.30PM: FINANCIAL and banking services giant Absa Group has decided to eliminate its four major subbrands — Volkskas, TrustBank, Allied Bank and United Bank — and brand them all Absa Bank, the group announced on Tuesday. The single brand will be in place from November, and is intended to help customer service and product […]
A EGYPTIAN digging a hole in his yard has unearthed a section of a 2000-year-old Roman tunnel on the western banks of the Nile River, the Supreme Council of Antiquities said on Wednesday. An SCA team rushed to the area of Giza in southern Cairo found that the tunnel runs 17m under buildings and a […]
WORLD Cup minnows Kenya saw their tournament warm-up match against Glamorgan washed out by rain in Cardiff on Tuesday. It was the Kenyans’ last chance of meaningful practice before the tournament starts on Friday. Kenya’s first game in the event is against group B rivals Zimbabwe on Saturday.
SUDAN’S meningitis death toll, which stood at 1250 persons last week, has now jumped to 1400, prompting the ministry of health to request the continued closure of schools in the country. The move is aimed at preventing further infections amid rising temperatures that have shot up to between 45-47 in most parts of the country. […]
THE Namibian government announced this week that unemployment had now grown to 35% of the country’s labour force, with women making up the majority of those without jobs. A spokesman for the Ministry of Youth and Sport said on Tuesday that the “strict, nationwide” unemployment figure stands at around 21%. But he said that the […]
WEDNESDAY, 1.45PM: EASTERN Province speedster Mornantau Hayward will get his first taste of the big leagues when he opens the bowling with Allan Donald for South Africa against Worcester on Thursday. Hayward will try and draw first blood for the tourists because of a slight stomach muscle strain to regular new-ball specialist Shaun Pollock. Meanwhile, […]
SPRINGBOK coach Nick Mallett will announce plans for the Springbok team on Saturday. Mallett will discuss the full schedule for the team including assembly dates, Tri-Nations preparations and the camp for the Rugby World Cup, a statement said on Tuesday. He will also announce details of squad announcements and training schedules.
AUSTRALIAN World Cup umpire Darrell Hair, who called Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Murlitharan for throwing four years ago, has allegedly received death threats from a Tamil group, media reports said here on Wednesday. Hair described the spinner’s action as “diabolical”, after coming in for round condemnation in Sri Lanka for calling him on throwing seven […]
MICHAEL METELITS, Johannesburg | Wednesday 5.30pm. SOUTH Arican markets felt an emerging market pinch on Wednesday, after Russian President Boris Yeltsin fired economic reform cheif Yevgeny Primakov and his entire Cabinet for failing to produce results. Additionally US Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin resigned, to be replaced by Lawrence Summers. The switch comes at […]
ZIMBABWEANS are to face an increase in the price of the staple maize meal from the end of May if the country’s millers have their way. Misheck Nyamupingidza, chairman of the Millers Association, said on Tuesday his association has recommended to the government a hike in the price of maize meal following the rise in […]
TEN students were arrested on Tuesday night when police ended a hostage drama at the Elijah Mango College in KaBokweni, Mpumalanga, a police spokeswoman said on Wednesday morning. Three college officials were held hostage at about 10.45am when students were prevented from registering for new courses until they had paid outstanding fees. One of the […]
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Mbabane | Thurday 9.00pm TALKS in Swaziland between Angolan and Zambian officials to ease tension between the neighbouring states ended early on Thursday with no apparent breakthrough. But delegates proposed that ministers from the 14-nation South African Development Community states meet next month to brainstorm the issue, Swaziland’s foreign ministry said in a […]
IAN WOODALL, leader of the South African team attempting to summit Everest, said on Tuesday that international expedition leaders may pool their resources to summit after the rescue of two Ukrainian mountaineers depleted the food and fuel reserves of most of the teams on the mountain. SABC TV reported that the South African team took […]
THE Bulls may have avoided becoming the first team to go through a Super 12 campaign without a win by beating the Auckland Blues in Witbank on Saturday, but they still face an almost certain prospect of statistically being the worst ever Super 12 performers in one season. The dubious record they are chasing is […]
ERNIE Els came in at fourth in teh world golf rankings on Monday adn Zimbabwe’s Nick Price made it into the top ten. David Duval took top honours, followed by Tiger Woods and Davis Love III. After Els came Vijay Singh in fifth, Lee Westwood, Mark O’Meara, Colin Montgomerie, Jim Furyk and then Price. Duval […]
RESIDENTS in a northern Liberian town looted more than 30 tons of rice seeds and stole thousands of agricultural tools stocked by an international agency, aid officials said on Wednesday. The Lutheran World Service said residents of Bopolu, some 90km north of Monrovia, burglarised its warehouses a fortnight ago “in the presence of military and […]
HURRICANES No 8 Filo Tiatia says his form “hasn’t been too bad, and hasn’t been too good”. That could also sum up the uneven form of the Hurricanes going into their last match of the 1999 Super 12, against the desperate-to-win Highlanders at Athletic Park on Saturday. Tiatia, hopeful of a World Cup squad spot […]
SOME 307 international observers, drawn mainly from South African Development Community countries, will monitor the June 2 general elections Independent Electoral Commission chair Brigalia Bam said on Tuesday. Bam added that strict security measures will be in place for the poll. “There is no reason to believe there will be a miscarriage of the elections,” […]
DESPITE a financial crisis provoked by the steep downturn in global oil prices, the Angolan government is expecting to raise some US$1,5-billion this year to help fund its war effort against the rebel movement Unita, financial analysts said on Tuesday. The government last week approved the allocation of drilling licenses to BP Amoco, Elf Aquitaine […]
NAMIBIAN national soccer team manager Bernard ‘Noree’ Kaanjuka announced an unchanged team for the all-important Cosafa Castle Cup qualifier against Malawi in Blantyre on May 22. Kaanjuka added that the 18-man squad – which drew 0-0 in their Africa Nations Cup match against against Mali in Windhoek on Saturday – will be boosted by the […]
BUBONIC plague in the far northern Ohangwena region of Namibia is spreading from village to village. Previously cases were only reported in Ohangwena’s Eenhana health district; now the disease is reported to have broken out in Ohangwena. Fears are also rife that it has reached the Oshana region, where a resident is alleged to have […]
MOZAMBIQUE will allow hunting of wild elephants and buffalo should an international tender to be held later this month prove successful, a provincial governor said late last week. Governor Aires Aly of the northern Niassa province said the tender will aim to select a company or organisation that can successfully organise the safaris. A recent […]
TWO naked thieves with painted faces and leaves in their hair leapt from bushes on a Zimbabwean golf course and did a war dance around two startled women golfers before making off with their handbags, a newspaper reported on Tuesday. The state-run Herald newspaper said the thieves, whose only weapons were their birthday suits, left […]
TALKS between Zambian and Angolan officials to ease the tension between the two countries opened in Swaziland on Monday. The five days of talks, mediated by Swaziland as chair of the security committee of the Southern African Development Community, are “to discuss the whole range of issues affecting our relationship,” a Zambian foreign ministry official […]
THE starting 15 players in this weekend’s final round Super 12 games will not be eligible for their provincial union’s Vodacom Cup semi-finals or finals, it was announced on Tuesday. “In essence this means only those players who are selected on the reserve bench for this weekend’s Super 12 matches will be available for selection […]
THE African National Congress and the rival Zulu-based Inkatha Freedom Party on Tuesday agreed to sign a peace pact in the country’s volatile KwaZulu-Natal province. The peace deal — designed to bring an end to more than a decade of bloody feuding between supporters of the two parties — will be signed in the east […]
A MILITANT white right-wing group has offered to send a 100-strong force of volunteer soldiers to Yugoslavia to help Serbia in its defence against Nato attacks, its leader said on Tuesday. Andrew Ford, leader of the extreme right-wing Boere Weerstand Beweging (Boer Resistance Movement), said he had sent a letter to the Yugoslavian embassy and […]
DAVID SHAPSHAK, Johannesburg | Tuesday 5.30pm. SPRINGBOK coach Nick Mallett is worried that ten players from the team who played in the last Test (against England last December) are injured. “Gary Teichmann, Henry Honiball, Mark Andrews, Christian Stewart, James Dalton, Adrian Garvey, Bobby Skinstad, Andre Snyman, Joost van der Westhuizen and Werner Swanepoel are all […]
RWANDA and Uganda are engaged in new moves to mediate in the year-old border conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, it has been learned in Addis Ababa. According to diplomatic sources in Addis Ababa, president Yoweri Museveni of Uganda has sent a special message to the Ethiopian prime minister Meles Zenawi to indicate the two countries’ […]
TUESDAY, 7.00PM: THE Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s buoyant start to the week ended swiftly on Tuesday, with only the all gold index closing in positive territory as all share, industrial and financial indices lost almost 2%. Much of the slump was ascribed to the disappointing figures released by South African Breweries’ annual results presentation. Again, the […]
A GROUP of police reservists will protest outside police headquarters in Pretoria on Tuesday demanding that they be incorporated into the police service. The protesters say they represent around 2000 reservists who were promised incorporation into the police service. Police human resources spokesman Senior Superintendent Johan Smal said no such promise was ever made but […]
THE Australian Rugby Union (ARU) yesterday ignored a plea by their New Zealand counterparts to censure New South Wales coach Matt Williams for meeting with referees before Super 12 matches. ARU MD John O’Neill said there was no law in place preventing the meetings called by Williams before the Waratahs’ last two matches in New […]