Gunmen temporarily captured a town in central Chad in an attempt to destabilise the country before next month’s presidential election, a government spokesperson said. There were no casualties in Tuesday’s raid in Mongo, 400km east of the capital, N’djamena, said Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor, the communications minister and government spokesperson.
North Korea unveiled a new economic blueprint this week that sets the impoverished Stalinist state the target of becoming a high-technology powerhouse within two decades. Military spending remains the biggest budget item and a top priority for North Korea, one of the world’s poorest countries that fields the fifth biggest army.
Standard Bank on Thursday opened its first new, full service branch in Alexandra township, north of Johannesburg. Residents of the 93-year-old township, which covers an area of over 800ha with an estimated population of 350 000 inhabitants, had to travel to nearby Sandton and Bramley for their full banking services or rely on a few automated teller machines.
South African brand management group Barloworld said on Wednesday that it plans to repurchase its own ordinary shares held by its wholly-owned subsidiary Barloworld Investments. Barloworld Investments acquired the ordinary shares in Barloworld in 2000 and 2003 and holds a total of 19 090 900 shares — or 8,3% of Barloworld’s entire ordinary issued share capital.
Russian Football Union (RFU) boss Vitaly Mutko officially confirmed on Wednesday that Dutch manager Guus Hiddink will take over Russia’s national squad after the end of the World Cup in Germany. Mutko added that the RFU and the 59-year-old Dutch guru would sign a two-year contract on Friday, which later may be prolonged for another two-year term.
Google agreed to comply with Chinese government censorship rules to fulfil its ”mission to serve all the people in the world”, Google chief executive officer Eric Schmidt said on Wednesday. ”The number one goal, by far, is to serve the Chinese citizen who wants information,” Schmidt told reporters at the launch of Google’s new Chinese name.
Daryll Cullinan hopes the lessons learnt from the 3-0 Test defeat by Australia are applied when South Africa take on New Zealand, starting with the first Test at Centurion on Saturday. The elegant right-handed batsman believes the three-Test series against New Zealand is an ideal opportunity for certain players to prove themselves capable at the highest level of the game.
Romano Prodi on Wednesday dismissed calls by outgoing Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi for a German-style grand coalition in Italy, saying he would form ”a strong government” despite his wafer-thin majority in the Senate. ”There is no need for a grand coalition because we have a majority that allows us to govern,” Prodi said.
Japanese steelmaker Kobe Steel said on Wednesday it has co-developed a way of producing high-grade steel from low-cost materials, a technique that it hopes to sell to other companies. Kobe Steel has built an experimental plant in the United States state of Minnesota with two of its US partners, electric furnace steelmaker Steel Dynamics and iron-ore producer Cleveland-Cliffs.
Blue Bulls lock Geo Cronje has been admitted to a Pretoria hospital in a serious condition after a tractor accident at the family farm near Mafikeng, Blue Bulls spokesperson Dimeon van Rooyen said on Wednesday. Van Rooyen said a tractor fell over on Cronje late on Tuesday.