Thousands of English fans arrived in Moscow on Tuesday ahead of Wednesday’s Champions League final between Chelsea and Manchester United at the Luzhniki stadium. The Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper pointed out it was the biggest invasion since the Germans besieged the city in World War II.
Somali gunmen kidnapped two Italian aid workers on Wednesday in the latest abduction of foreigners in the Horn of Africa country, officials and residents said. One official said the abducted Italians were a man and a woman. One resident said a Somali aid worker was also seized in the town of Awdigle south of the capital Mogadishu.
The former Times editor Robert Thomson was named managing editor of the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday night as Rupert Murdoch tightened control of the world’s top selling business newspaper. Thomson’s new role is the top editorial position at the Journal.
A New Zealand man had a novel idea when he found himself in a queue at a service station counter with no money, could he pay with marijuana instead? Unfortunately he didn’t get a chance to discover whether the attendant would accept his offer, as the person behind him in the queue was a police officer.
The South African government is under growing pressure to send troops into Johannesburg’s townships for the first time since the apartheid era as African immigrants continued to flee a wave of killings and violence against foreigners. Several people were killed overnight including two men, believed to be Mozambican miners, who were beaten to death as mobs moved through townships.
In the current scandal of the attempt to ship tons of arms and ammunition to Zimbabwe it is the Chinese who have spoken the most sense. China’s foreign ministry said the country’s shipment of mortar grenades, rockets and bullets was ”perfectly normal trade”.
Franklin Templeton Investments has 40 offshore collective investment schemes registered with the South African Financial Services Board. Michael King, Franklin Templeton director for Africa, says the group offers a range of investment opportunities to South African investors, available through the foreign exchange offshore allowance.
Tumi Makgetla profiles Intsika, a jewellery school in the East Rand
In mid-2004 Sanlam Multi-Manager International restructured its international offering to its South African clients by applying its process to its new global equity and global bond products. Previously SMMI operated on a regional basis, finding the best investment managers in each geographic area to manage its assets.
A trumpeter, a combat training specialist and a personnel clerk took on the South African National Defence Force in court last week over the military’s policy on HIV-positive soldiers. The three, together with the South African Security Forces Union, applied to have lifted an effective blanket ban on the employment of people with HIV and the promotion of soldiers who are already HIV-positive.