Staff Reporter

Scientists have discovered a protein in monkeys that can block infection by the virus that causes Aids. The team, from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in the United States, hope their work could lead to new ways to prevent humans being infected with HIV.

South African President Thabo Mbeki, under pressure publicly to declare that he would not go for an unconstitutional third term of office as head of state, appeared to poke fun at doomsday merchants in his opening of Parliament speech on Friday.

Official opposition deputy finance spokesperson Pierre Rabie said he was certain that President Thabo Mbeki would avoid the Zimbabwe issue in his State of the Nation speech on Friday — what Mbeki’s Director General Frank Chikane described as one of the four "Hs": Harare , Hefer, HIV, and Haiti.<br>
<li><a class="standardtextsmall" href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=30622">State of the Nation: What experts say</a>

TelkomInternet, a division of partially privatised South African telecommunications giant Telkom, has quarantined more than 500&nbsp;000 virus-infected e-mail messages mostly infected with the MyDoom virus, the telecommunications company announced on Thursday.

"I don’t know how many folks spotted the recent article in <i>The Independent</i> saying, among other things, "A study, which is being taken seriously by top government scientists, has uncovered a change "of remarkable amplitude" in the circulation of the waters of the North Atlantic." The disturbing this is that it’s not the only article of its kind, according to Ian Fraser. Be afraid.

The key aspect of black economic empowerment (BEE) is that it should never destroy value for the parties involved, says the recently appointed chairperson of BHP Billiton, Dr Vincent Maphai. BHP Billiton is the world’s largest diversified resources group and employs 35 000 people.

A new, verbal way to send messages via the GSM network that does not require users to type in a SMS is here, Swedish-based telecommunications giant Ericsson has announced. And, like current text-based SMSs, it costs less than a cellphone call.

Ghanaian women’s rights groups have called for stronger laws against female genital mutilation following two landmark rulings in northern Ghana against the traditional practice. Female circumcision is designed to reduce a woman’s sex drive and remove her temptation to have sex before marriage.

The defection of senior United Democratic Movement official Kingsley Masemola to the African National Congress was prompted by financial considerations, his former political masters said on Monday. They said Masemola, former UDM national chairperson, was still to account for "questionable cheques" he had signed.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=30526">UDM chairperson joins ANC</a>

The closest I came to coming face-to-face with Angelina Jolie (and those famous pouting lips that put Mick Jagger and the rest of us Negroes in the shade) was seeing the back of her head from a respectable distance as she waited for the camera crew to line up the next shot in the sweltering heat of the Namibian desert.

December’s 0,5% reduction in the base interest rate disappointed many South Africans. It now looks mean against the very low inflation figures published soon afterwards. The strong rand has dragged down exports and revenues and cost jobs. Import prices are down, putting pressure on the current account.

More than a third of South Africa’s small and medium businesses that were connected to the internet were at risk from the MyDoom virus that clogged up the world’s networks this week.

Zimbabwe’s coming 2003/04 maize crop is likely to produce a harvest of between 800 000 to 900 000 tons, which is 33%-38% below the country’s national cereal requirement for both human and livestock consumption, the latest Famine Early Warning Systems Network (Fews-Net) report says.

After fighting the longest civil war in Africa, the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) is now fuming over the delay in negotiations aimed at ending the conflict.
Talks in the Kenyan town of Nairasha have been postponed until February 17 to allow Muslim negotiators such as Vice-President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha to attend the hajj.

For a meeting in which adversaries agreed on nothing more than to meet again, the talks between Burundian President Domitien Ndayizeye and the last rebel group under arms has been getting rave reviews. The warring Burundian forces have agreed to set aside differences and work at building trust.

This is the seventh straight year that I have been in South Africa at matric time –either while students are frantically preparing for it as if their lives depended on the results, or while the results are being publicised, scrutinised and criticised in the press and other public forums with great drama. Both have become institutionalised cultural rituals that South Africa would best abandon.

Israel released hundreds of Palestinian prisoners as part of a deal with Hezbollah on Thursday just hours after a suicide bomber killed 10 other people when he blew himself up aboard a bus close to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s official residence.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=30329">’It’s a nightmare'</a>