The four-year-old granddaughter of Transvaal Judge President Bernard Ngoepe was kidnapped in a robbery in Lenasia on Wednesday, Vaal police said. Preliminary investigations ruled out the possibility of a link between the kidnapping and the Jacob Zuma rape trial, from which Ngoepe had recused himself.
The full extent of child abuse scandals threatening the Roman Catholic church in Ireland has emerged in a study by the archdiocese of Dublin which reveals that more than 100 of its priests have faced paedophile accusations since 1940. More than 350 children are said to have been sexually or physically abused in that period.
Standard Bank on Thursday reported a 23% increase in headline earnings per share for the year to the end of December 2005. Headline earnings increased from 570,3 cents to 702,3 cents per share, which was much better than the I-Net Bridge consensus forecast of headline earnings per share of 666,5 cents.
Listed financial services group Sanlam has reported a 99% increase in headline earnings per share for the year to the end of December 2005 to 229,8 cents from 115,3 cents a year earlier. The company declared a total dividend for the year of 65 cents per share, a 30% increase on the 50 cents per share distributed in 2004.
Miracles, like much else in the Catholic church, aren’t what they used to be. The French shrine of Lourdes has often been likened to a religious theme park, offering package tours and souvenirs for the millions of pilgrims who arrive each year, many of them sick and desperate to experience or at least witness a miracle.
Click on image for full-size view.
Sudan’s government warned on Wednesday that deploying a United Nations force to the war-torn western Darfur region risks worsening conflict there and eroding the African Union’s (AU) mandate to intervene in other trouble spots in the continent.
![]()
Southern African bishops expressed ”deep disgust” at the behaviour of some people in the vicinity of the Johannesburg High Court, where Jacob Zuma is on trial for rape. ”We therefore call on those responsible for such behaviour to desist immediately from such demeaning action,” the bishops said in a statement.
A writer who claims The Da Vinci Code copied from his work insisted in a British court on Wednesday there were specific echoes of his book in the best-selling thriller. However, Michael Baigent conceded there were many differences in detail between The Da Vinci Code and his 1982 non-fiction book.
A string of explosions on Wednesday killed at least six people — including two young boys — and injured nine in the Iraqi capital, police said. A bomb hidden under a parked car near the University of Technology exploded as police from the interior minister’s protection force were driving through central Baghdad.