Staff Reporter

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 […]

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 […]

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, Johannesburg | Wednesday 8.30pm. MOZAMBICAN attorney-general Antonio Namburete said on Wednesday that more arrests could follow in connection with the gun-running and espionage charges levelled against foreign affairs official Robert McBride. Namburete spoke in Pretoria, after addressing a crime conference, saying the case against McBride must still be solved: “The suspects still have […]

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, Nairobi | Tuesday 7.00pm. A FORMER Kenyan game warden on Tuesday read an hour-long statement in a Kenyan court pleading his innocence in the murder of British tourist Julie Ward in Maasai Mara National Reserve 10 years ago. Shortly after his plea, Magistrate Uniter Kidullah ruled he is to stand trial as “there […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kisangani | Tuesday 11.00pm. WITH five attempts at peace mediation now failed, the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo is spreading to pull in countries throughout the region. Sudan has sent 2,000 soldiers to bolster DRC President Laurent Kabila’s forces in the forward military headquarters of Kindu in eastern DRC, according to […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Tuesday 9.00pm. BOTH windows of a bakkie, in which two People Against Gangsterism and Drugs supporters died, were closed when a bomb exploded in the vehicle, the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court heard on Tuesday. The case follows the death of Pagad supporters Faizel Hendricks, 30, and Nurulla Allie, 33, when a […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 11.00pm. CONTROVERSIAL foreign affairs official Robert McBride has accused South African police of deliberately misleading their Mozambican counterparts to ensure he was charged for gun-running, leading to his imprisonment for six months in Maputo. McBride said he has approached the Independent Complaints Directorate to lodge a complaint against the SA […]

SARAH BULLEN, Johannesburg | Tuesday 5.30pm. Local stock gained a little ground on a fairly quiet day’s trade on Monday. Dealers said the market had far stronger undertones, largely as a result of an improvement in international markets. Eastern markets picked up following Wall Street’s hike on Friday, with almost every market showing gains. In […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Tuesday 9.15pm. A PARLIAMENTARY report on Tuesday on an investigation into allegations that South African Secret Service members were involved in smuggling Zairean generals and their loot into South Africa last year singularly failed to report any conclusive findings. Instead the document merely recommends tighter border controls. The multi-party committee […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maputo | Tuesday 4.30pm. A DATE for bail applications has yet to be set for druglord Rashied Staggie’s bodyguard, Graham Greentree, and Hard Living’s gang co-leader Roland Olince, who were arrested in connection with an arms theft at the police armoury in Faure in the Western Cape in June. Greentree and Olince, together […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maseru | Tuesday 7.00pm. THE Lesotho Parliament cancelled its sitting on Tuesday after a day of protests by opposition party supporters in Maseru. In the morning, army and police intervened when government vehicles were seized by youths and driven to the royal palace in protest against the delay of the release of the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kibla Park | Tuesday 9.30pm. A FORMER Gauteng commander of the Pan Africanist Congress’s armed wing, the Azanian People’s Liberation Army (Apla), told a Truth and Reconciliation Commission amnesty hearing on Tuesday that he ordered the Eikenhof ambush in the Vaal Triangle in March 1993 in which a woman and two children were […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maputo | Monday 1.00pm. FOREIGN affairs official Robert McBride, who has been detained in Mozambique since March on gunrunning and espionage charges, was provisionally released from jail on Monday. Speaking shortly after her husband’s release, Paula McBride said: “We’re extremely tired, and I can’t wait to take him home.” The couple will return […]

JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Nelspruit | Sunday 7.00PM. MPUMALANGA’S embattled parks chief, Alan Gray, lost a last-ditch bid to save his career on Friday despite a flurry of legal letters and frantic behind-the-scenes lobbying. The Mpumalanga Parks Board recommended that Gray be suspended immediately pending the outcome of a discliplinary hearing into his handling of a series […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Grand Baie | Monday 10.00pm. RWANDAN and Ugandan delegates were reportedly refused permission to attend a closed door meeting of South African Development Community members in the Mauritian resort of Grand Baie on Monday. The two countries are not members of the 14-nation SADC. A Democratic Republic of Congo official said the DRC […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Nairobi | Monday 9.15pm. TENSION is rising in Kenya over the government’s decision last week to shut down five Moslem non-governmental organisations as retaliation for the August bombing of the United States embassy in the capital, Nairobi. Kenyan Muslim organisations are claiming that US pressure led to the ban and that Muslims NGOs […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maseru | Monday 8.30pm. LESOTHO opposition supporters, protesting against the delay in publicising the Langa Commission’s final report into alleged electoral fraud, gathered outside the residence of South Africa’s High Commissioner Japhet Ndhlovu in Maseru on Monday to demand that the findings be released immediately. Earlier the protesters marched from the royal palace […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Tuesday 4.30pm. BOTH the rebel commander Jean-Pierre Ondekane and Rwandan Vice President Paul Kagame claimed that Monday morning’s failed attack on the rebel stronghold of Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo was carried out by Rwandan Hutu Interhamwe militias. The Interhamwe were responsible for the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Luanda | Tuesday 7.30pm. ANGOLAN troops have been sent to the small mining town of Kamatuka in Lunda Norte after 30 people were maasacred there on Sunday. Angolan government radio said rebel forces loyal to Unita leader Jonas Savimbi were responsible for the killings. Early in July, 215 people were reported massacred in […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Sunday 8.30PM. A HISTORIC deal has been signed to facilitate the redevelopment of Cape Town’s District Six, razed by the apartheid government in the 1960s. The agreement will pave the way for more than 45000 people, forcibly removed from their land and relocated on the barren Cape Flats under the […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maputo | Monday 1.00pm. FOREIGN affairs official Robert McBride, arriving back in South Africa after being freed from detention in Mozambique on Monday, says he was falsely implicated on charges of gun running in Mozambique and that he knows who set him up. Speaking at a media conference at Johannesburg airport, McBride said […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Monday 9.30am. SHAUN POLLOCK’s cricket team put in a lethargic performance to beat Bangladesh by six wickets after the cricketing minnows posted a paltry 79 all-out. The South African batsmen then lost the plot completely, and were five wickets down before opener Herschelle Gibbs steadied the ship. The South Africans will […]

JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Nelspruit | Tuesday 9.30pm. THE illegal R340-million Mpumalanga Parks Boards offshore loan scheme currently being investigated by the Heath special investigative unit is not the only such scheme in Mpumalanga. The small impoverished township of Ekangala, near Bronkhorstspruit, secretly issued a promissory note for US$3-million to Davron Projects cc on July 23, in […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 2.00pm. MARION Jones again delivered the goods at the World Cup of athletics at the Johannesburg Stadium on Saturday, clocking the fourth fastest women’s 100m in history. After on Friday running the tird fastest 200m ever, the 22 year-old Jones produced a stunning 10,65sec to win in a personal best […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 2.00PM. ORLANDO Pirates took their place in the quarterfinals of the Rothmans Cup soccer competition when they drew 1-1 with Bloemfontein Celtic at the First National Bank Stadium, winning 5-1 on aggregate. Celtic’s chances were remmote from the start, after being 3-0 down on aggregate from their first round defeat […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kisangani | Friday 9.00pm. REBELS fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo have refuted the government’s claim that it has recaptured the town of Lubutu, which lies on the main route between tow rebel strongholds. Rebel-run Radio Bukavu said at the weekend that forces opposing President Laurent Kabila still controlled Lubutu, about 360km […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Grande Baie | Sunday 8.00PM. THE Southern African Development Community’s annual summit opened in Grand Baie in northern Mauritius on Sunday afternoon, with the opening addresses focusing on economic issues and regional conflict. President Nelson Mandela, who chairs SADC, expressed deep distress at the re-emergence of violent conflict in Angola. “We have great […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maputo | Sunday 7.00PM. FOREIGN affairs official Robert McBride who has been detained in Mozambique since March is expected to be released on Monday. Mc Bride’s lawyer, Jose Nascimento, said McBride was die to be released on Friday, but the process was being held up by paperwork. He said the release would not […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maseru | Sunday 7.30PM. FOLLOWING lengthy talks with local Lesotho parties on Sunday, the South African Defence Minister Joe Modise said there is still some way to go to find a solution. Modise flew to Lesotho following Friday night’s mutiny in the armed forces, where junior officers rounded up their seniors, among them […]