Staff Reporter

SARAH BULLEN, Johannesburg | Thursday 10.00am. FINANCE Minister Trevor Manuel’s appears to be the biggest winner on Thursday after his widely lauded fourth Budget in office, presented to Parliament on Wednesday, has been met with widespread praise from economists, business, unions, and investors alike. His 1999 Budget, commentators said on Thursday, will boost his standing […]

SPAIN’S King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia were off to a game reserve on Thursday at the end of their four-day official visit, a Spanish embassy spokesperson said. The official part of their trip was centered on economic issues, concluding in Johannesburg on Wednesday with a forum on trade and investment opportunities.

THE president of the Commission on Co-operation and Development at the European parliament, Michel Rocard, said on Tuesday that the EU’s efforts in finding solution to the Anjouan crisis are secondary to those of the Organisation of African Unity. Rocard, a former French prime minister is in the Comoros Islands to support the OAU mission […]

THE health ministry on Wednesday confirmed reports that a non-governmental organisation, collaborating with the health department in combating Aids, mistakenly damaged condoms by stapling them to a leaflet together with information on their use. These condoms were later distributed in Soweto and at the Carlton Centre in Johannesburg. No evidence of similar practices was found […]

EGYPTIAN Foreign Minister Amr Mussa flew to Tripoli in violation of an air embargo after Britain and the United States withheld permission for the flight, sanctions committee sources said on Tuesday.The sources said that Egypt notified the United Nations sanctions committee at the weekend in advance of Monday’s return flight from Cairo.But the United States […]

UNITED States engineering company, Fluor Daniel, launched a $1,3-million feasibility study into a second Mozambican aluminum smelter in the coastal city of Beira on Tuesday. The proposed smelter would produce up to 250000 tons of aluminum per year from its Savane site, 25km north of Beira. Mozambican national energy director Casimiro Fransisco said the 10-month […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Wednesday 1.30pm. THE police are losing the battle against crime, Police Services chief executive officer Meyer Kahn conceded on Tuesday as he revealed that he will not be renewing his two-year contract when it expires at the end of July. Kahn, who has already accepted the chairmanship of South African Breweries […]

NON-residents were net buyers of R293,4-million worth of South African bonds on Monday after buying only R49,3-million worth on Friday, according to the latest Bond Exchange data.

ENGLAND A earned victory by one wicket in the first of three one-day internationals against Zimbabwe A in Bulawayo on Tuesday with just three balls to spare. The home side reached 262 all out in 49,4 overs and England A scrambled to the required target at 263 to win in 49,3 overs with the last […]

AFTER waiting for 25 years, Burundi has decided to develop the rich Musongati nickel deposit in the southern part of country by entrusting its exploitation to a Canadian-Australian company. With reserves of about 18-million tons of nickel laterite, the Burundian deposit is said to be among the three largest in the world, behind those of […]

GOING to football matches is no excuse for skipping Islam’s weekly Friday prayers, the Mufti of Egypt, Sheikh Nasser Farid Wassel, has ruled. “Sporting meetings are no excuse to miss Friday prayers,” said the mufti who called on the Egyptian authorities to “stop clashing” with the weekly Moslem noontime prayers. “Anyone who stops Moslems from […]

POLICE arrested eight men on Tuesday in connection with Friday’s robbery of a group of 19 United States tourists at a preschool in Mamelodi, Pretoria. Mamelodi police spokesperson Captain Elias Mawela said the men were arrested between 3am and 6am on Tuesday morning. He said the police have so far recovered a cellphone, a camera, […]

THE Mpumalanga Parks Board announced on Tuesday is looking for a joint venture partner to upgrade the dismal Middelburg Zoo. The parks board’s senior general manager for conservation, Arrie van Wyk, said that the zoo needed some serious “cleaning up” and could even be privatised. He said the parks board has come under criticism for […]

BELGIUM will lobby its European Union partners to ratify a draft trade and development deal with South Africa, Belgian Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene said on Tuesday. “We hope there is a gift we can give you before the elections,” he said, referring to the deal which would improve market access in the EU for South […]

AN Italian anthropologist claims to have found a woman of “at least” 150 and possibly as old as 170 living in central Kenya. The woman, named Wangui, belongs to the Kikuyu tribe and lives in a straw hut in a village about 30km from Nairobi, according to Professor Giovanni Perrucci of the University of Chieti. […]

SOUTH African Druggists (SAD) said on Tuesday it had received a conditional offer for its pharmaceutical businesses from a joint venture company owned by Aspen Healthcare. In a separate statement, Aspen and South Africa’s Macmed Health Care said they have formed a new joint venture company and submitted an offer to SAD, which includes a […]

THE European Commissioner in charge of humanitarian affairs, Emma Bonino, left Dakar on Tuesday at the end of a tour of West African countries, saying she is worried about stability in the region. Bonino said her tour of Sierra Leone, Guinea Conakry, Guinea Bissau and Senegal, where she met refugees fleeing conflicts, raised doubts on […]

NAMIBIA is in the throes of global warming and is already experiencing the impact of climate change according to the latest Climate Change Report for Namibia. Jackie Tarr of the country’s environmental affairs department said last week that since 1970 there has been a noticeable decline in rainfall in Namibia coupled with the hottest temperatures […]

MAIZE soared in Monday trade as continuing widespread dry hot weather fed market fears of a reduced and damaged crop, traders and producers said. White and yellow maize futures contracts added about 20 rand a ton as the key maize growing areas dried out, in some cases with irreversible damage, while rains were not widespread. […]

UNITED States Vice President Al Gore arrives in Cape Town aboard Air Force Two on Wednesday morning for the first full session of the US/South Africa binational commission since August 1997. Thursday’s session on the theme “the SA-US partnership into the new millennium” will be co-chaired by Deputy President Thabo Mbeki and Gore. A trade […]

THE Medical University of Southern Africa (Medunsa) has given students with financial problems 10 more days in which to make arrangements to pay their fees. Students owe the university over R56,1 million in fees. A debt of R26,1 million was incurred during the 1998 academic year alone. Medunsa spokesman, Richard Maseko, said on Tuesday that […]

MALI has accepted to provide prison facilities for convicts of the 1994 Rwanda genocide. The West African nation becomes the first country to sign a formal agreement with the United Nations for the enforcement of the Rwandan tribunal’S sentences. A statement issued by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda said that an agreement to this […]

“WONDERFUL. It’s a smashing dramatic victory. It means Namibia could even finish second on the log standings,” said Namibian Cricket Board president Laurie Pieters, when he announced the national team’s one-run victory over Boland A in a three-day match on Sunday. Namibia accumulated 240 runs, dismissing Boland A for 239 with James Kirtley taking 5/58. […]

A FORMER Umkhonto we Sizwe commander told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s amnesty committee in Johannesburg on Tuesday that he ordered the killing of student activist Sicelo Dlomo in 1988 because he suspected him of being a police informer. John Itumeleng Dube (37) a former commander of MK, the military wing of the African National […]

PUBLIC Works Minister Jeff Radebe on Tuesday received amnesty from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for his arming self-defence units of the United Democratic Front/African National Congress in KwaZulu-Natal in the 1980s.

SOUTH Africa’s Wayne Ferreira continued his dominance over Swede Thomas Enqvist at the World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam on Tuesday. Ferreira has not lost a set to the Swede in their three previous encounters and kept that record intact by beating the seventh seed 7-6 (9-7) 6-3. Enqvist, ranked 13th, has been one of the […]

NIGERIAN presidential candidate Olusegun Obasanjo late on Tuesday named a northeastern politician, Abubakar Atiku, as his running mate in February 27 elections.Obasanjo, a former military ruler from the southwest of Nigeria, is facing a man from the same region, former finance minister Olu Falae, in the polls. Falae on Tuesday named a northwestern politician, and […]

HARD labour in prisons should be reintroduced, Federal Alliance leader Louis Luyt said in Pretoria on Tuesday. He told a public meeting at University of Pretoria that prisoners forfeited all rights they might have when they committed crimes against society. “Convicts should be used to build houses, hospitals and schools. We will force them to […]

SUPER 12 rugby’s governing body Sanzar has rejected bids from Australia and South Africa to expand the competition. Sanzar and New Zealand Rugby Football Union chairman Rob Fisher said no expansion is likely for at least three years. New Zealand has five teams, South Africa four and Australia three in the competition which leads up […]

KING LEKA I, the flamboyant exiled pretender to the Albanian throne, was granted R15000 bail on Monday after being arrested on arms charges. Leka was arrested with three other men at his Johannesburg home on February 5 after police found a large quantity of firearms, ammunition, anti-personnel mines and rocket launchers. Transferred from his jail […]

ENGLAND A earned victory by one wicket in the first of three one-day internationals against Zimbabwe A in Bulawayo on Tuesday with just three balls to spare. The home side reached 262 all out in 49,4 overs and England A scrambled to the required target at 263 to win in 49,3 overs with the last […]

LEICESTER and England star Austin Healey was on Monday banned for 21 days by his club for stamping on former KwaZulu-Natal scrumhalf Kevin Putt in a weekend club match in Britain. Television cameras caught Healey stamping on Putt’s face, who plays for London Irish. The South African needed six stitches to a cut above his […]