Staff Reporter

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Sardinia | Thursday 7.30pm. A FEISTY Mistral forced the cancellation of the first day of racing at the Sardinia Cup regatta in the Mediterranean this week and South African yachtsman Geoff Meek only managed a fifth place on the second day’s 80-mile offshore race in continuing 35-knot winds. Meek is one of five […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Thursday 9.00pm. A NEW special investigating unit is to be set up to concentrate on gangs and organised crime, Justice Minister Dullah Omar announced on Thursday. A unit focusing on gang-related activity and violence in the Western Cape will begin operations immediately, he told a press conference in Cape Town. […]

Deputy President Thabo Mbeki was greatly angered when he discovered details of Robert McBride’s activities in Mozambique, writes Wally Mbhele Deputy President Thabo Mbeki was so much in the dark about Robert McBride’s undercover spying activities on behalf of government intelligence agencies that a special team of intelligence officials was dispatched to interview the diplomat […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maseru | Thursday 10.00pm. LESOTHO public servants who have stayed away from government offices in Maseru for three days due to pressure from opposition parties were ordered back to work on Friday. An announcement on Radio Lesotho from Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili’s office said public servants should return to work at once. The […]

Ian Whittell The TV stations are the hardware, the sports teams the software. That is the cynical but realistic jargon in an American sports world in which media companies are taking hold. “The long tentacles of media conglomerates are something we have to watch very carefully,” said Bud Selig, commissioner of Major League Baseball. And […]

Food : Matthew Krouse Alighting from one’s car and approaching the Wangthai Restaurant, in Pretoria’s genteel nook of Brooklyn, one is greeted by the strangest apparition. A bevy of blonde waitresses, in flowing saris, bowing in infinite submission. It’s the start of a fabulous romance – the love we feel for our stomachs. Wangthai is […]

Alex Sudheim : On show in Durban The residents of Emalendeni hostels are always hungry. The 90 physically-disabled children and youths living in the low, bleak buildings on the outskirts of Durban’s Umlazi township no longer receive food aid from the government, and survive on the 10 loaves of bread a day donated by a […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 4.30pm. THE SOUTH African tourist industry could create up to 600000 new jobs by 2010 if it can successfully tap its travel and tourism potential, the South African Chamber of Commerce director-general Raymond Parsons said. Addressing the chamber’s Northern Province congress in Tzaneen, Parsons said that tourism and travel are […]

It’s written in the stars, but only the experts can read it, and not everybody believes it. Jane Rosenthal visited astrologer Rod Suskin The day I made an appointment with Rod Suskin, I did not know that my father would die (I knew he was sick) and nor did I know that a devastating forest […]

SDIs are aimed specifically at boosting employment and black empowerment, but, asks Hein Marais, will they have the necessary finances? Right now the multi-billion rand Mozal smelter is just two holes in the ground – 3m deep, a kilometre apart, several football pitches wide – gouged out of a patch of pasture in Matola, outside […]

A lot more goes on after bedtime than we know about, writes Gill Moodie The next time you are tossing and turning in bed, it might ease the night to think of scientists at the University of the Witwatersrand who are holding vigil over electro-encephalogram (EEG) machines to try to understand that mysterious activity that […]

Donna Block : Share World Two nations united by history but divided by destiny, India and Pakistan are like estranged sisters fighting over the same man. They have fought three wars, two of them over the disputed region of Kashmir, and have displayed their nuclear capabilities. This long-running feud is affecting the stability and economic […]

When Federico Andahazi wrote a novel about the clitoris, Argentines were scandalised – and women rushed to buy it for their husbands. Maya Jaggi reports Every discovery is arrogant, says Federico Andahazi, and possibly none more so than that charted in his remarkable novel The Anatomist. At its heart is a real Renaissance scientist from […]

Sending a peacekeeping force is no longer an option for restoring calm to Maseru, as armed soldiers and civilians prepare to repel the force from the kingdom. Sechaba ka’Nkosi and Howard Barrell report Brigadiers in the Lesotho Defence Force have assumed effective control of the country following the complete collapse of the civilian and administrative […]

In New York you get whipped, in Thailand it’s real sex, but in Zimbabwe you just stock up on fantasies. Mercedes Sayagues meets the Warriors I don’t know what turns you on. But I know what turned on 500 Zimbabwean women last week: the muscular, sculpted bodies of six young South African hunks as they […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Friday 3.30pm. THE Zimbabwean central bank on Friday refused to publicly release its long-awaited report into collapsed “indigenous” bank of Roger Boka. The central bank instead passed the report on the collapse of Boka’s United Merchant Bank on the the justice ministry and police officials. It is thought that the report […]

Ferial Haffajee The production house Urban Brew will not take its new-look breakfast television show for SABC2 to air as planned. The launch date has been delayed by at least a fortnight, reportedly because Urban Brew is not yet ready to broadcast. The breakfast contract is the SABC’s most lucrative. Worth R40-million, the pitch for […]

SARAH BULLEN,Johannesburg | Thursday 9.45am. SYNTHETIC fuel group Sasol on Wednesday reported a 18,6% fall in attributable profit to R2-billion for the year to June — its first fall in profits in a decade. The fall was despite a weaker rand to dollar exchange rate, R500-million in synthetic fuel subsidies and a R100-million transfer from […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kuala Lumpur | Thursday 7.30pm. THE South African women’s hockey team suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of New Zealand at the Pantai Stadium on Thursday night. South Africa needed to score a draw, if not a win, in this crucial match to advance to the semifinals against Australia. Instead they conceded […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Thursday 4.00pm. THE Zimbabwean central bank on Thursday produced a damning report on black banker Roger Boka, and blames the government of bending banking licensing procedures to allow his underfunded bank to operate in the first place. The report into the collapse of Boka’s “indigenous” United Merchant Bank accuses Boka of […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kuala Lumpur | Thursday 8.30pm. SOUTH Africa will play a confident Australia in the cricket final at the Commonwealth Games, after the Australian team disposed of New Zealand in a crushing defeat in the semi-final on Thursday. Steve Waugh’s Australians warmed up for Saturday’s final with an emphatic nine-wicket win that was completed […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Thursday 9.00pm. A SAFETY system is needed that will warn of possible rockfalls and mudslides on Cape Town’s most scenic coastal drive, an engineering geologist told the Cape Town High Court on Thurday. Fredrick Stapelberg testified in a civil claim of more than R4- million against the Cape Metropolitan Council […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 10.00pm. REBELS from the Democratic Republic of Congo have accused the Southern African Development Community of “legitimising” President Laurent Kabila. In a propaganda war that is growing heated on all sides, the Congolese Democratic Coalition said in a press briefing in Midrand, near Johannesburg: “Granting legitimacy to the Kabila regime […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kuala Lumpur | Thursday 7.30pm. FREESTYLE artist Ryk Neethling picked up South Africa’s second Commonwealth Games swimming medal when he finished second in the men’s 1500m event in 15 minutes 02,88 seconds in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday night. He broke both a South African and African record for the event. Although he beat […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kuala Lumpur | Thursday 10.00am. BRENDON Dedekind has won South Africa’s first medal for swimming in the Commonwealth Games at Kuala Lumpur. He picked up silver in the 50m freestyle, in 22,70 to touch just behind Mark Foster of England who set a Commonwealth record of 22,58. Multiple World Championship medal winner Michael […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Thursday 9.00pm. AMENDMENTS to the Electoral Bill allowing voters who are not in possession of a green, bar-coded ID book to use a temporary certificate to register for next year’s general election were approved by the National Assembly on Thursday. However, temporary certificat holders will still have to be issued […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Thursday 4.00pm. DEMOCRATIC Republic of Congo President Laurent Kabila on Wednesday said he wants to hold elections in the country in April 1999 , but first must “boot out” invading troops. “We want to go to elections. It was set for April. For that we will have to boot the aggressor […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Wednesday 8.30pm. ZIMBABWE has said it will maintain its force in the Democratic Republic of Congo until there is “irreversible” peace there. Addressing Parliament the Zimbabwean defence minister, Moven Mahachi, faced a mass of criticism from MPs dissatisfied with Zimbabwe’s military intervention in the DRC. According to local reports, MPs said […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kuala Lumpur | Tuesday 10.00pm. DEAF Durbanite Terence Parkin sliced more than two seconds off his national record, but just missed a Commonwealth medal, in the men’s 200m breaststroke in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday night. Julia Russell finished fourth in the women’s 100m breaststroke in a time of 1min 10,47 seconds. Parkin clocked […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Port Elizabeth | Tuesday 10.00pm. NATAL hooker Chris Rossouw has been cleared of a charge of throwing a punch at Free State hooker Naka Drotske during last week’s Currie Cup game in Bloemfontein. He will now be free to play for the team in the Bankfin Currie Cup rugby match against Boland at […]

SARAH BULLEN, Johannesburg | Wednesday 12.30pm. LOCAL stock rocketed on Wednesday morning as relief over global gains and a massive rally by Latin American markets spilled over into the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. By midday the all share index had gained 2,46%, led up by a 4,32% rise in the financial index and a 3,47% gain […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maseru | Wednesday 11.30am. SOUTH Africa’s announcement that the Langa Commission report on alleged electoral fraud in Lesotho will be released on Thursday has been met with threats that the report will be rejected by Lesotho opposition parties. Frank Chikane, secretary-general in the office of the deputy president, announced Johannesburg on Wednesday evening […]