Women’s world number one Justine Henin on Wednesday announced her retirement from competitive tennis at a press conference in her native Belgium. ”I have decided to put an end to my tennis-playing career,” she said, confirming reports in the Belgian press.
A union representing South African soldiers is to take the country’s armed forces to court on Thursday over alleged discrimination against HIV-infected personnel, the union said on Wednesday. The South African Security Forces’ Union accuses the South African National Defence Force of discriminating against HIV-infected people.
Charles Taylor’s deputy testified in the war-crimes trial of the former Liberian president on Wednesday, describing how a Sierra Leonean rebel leader answered to his boss. Moses Blah was Taylor’s vice-president from 2000 until he took over as interim president for three months in 2003 after Taylor stepped down.
Lawyers for convicted murderers the Waterkloof Four have filed papers in the Pretoria High Court for an application for leave to appeal, it was reported on Wednesday. The four want to take their murder-conviction appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal after they lost their first appeal case in the Pretoria High Court last week.
Demands from various quarters that South Africa stop its electricity exports to neighbouring countries amounted to ”economic xenophobia”, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin said on Wednesday. Eskom’s customers outside South Africa would be treated exactly like any other customer with the same rights, and this would remain so.
What do you want your cellphone to be able to do? A Massachusetts Industry of Technology professor put that question to about 20 computer-science students this semester when he gave them one assignment: design a software program for cellphones that use Google’s upcoming Android mobile operating system.
Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets in several towns in Burkina Faso, one of the world’s poorest countries, on Wednesday to protest the rising cost of living as part of a three-day general strike. In the capital, Ouagadougou, demonstrators started marching from the headquarters of the main unions and the city centre.
The City of Johannesburg will appeal a high court ruling that found forcibly installing prepaid water meters is unconstitutional, mayor Amos Masondo said on Wednesday. In a speech prepared for delivery, Masondo said the city had consulted its lawyers, who had carefully considered the judgement regarding meters in Phiri, Soweto, and found that it was ”distorted”.
The Indian cricket board banned off-spinner Harbhajan Singh for five one-day internationals on Wednesday for a slapping incident involving Shanthakumaran Sreesanth during a domestic Twenty20 league match last month. The ban meant the 27-year-old off-spinner will miss the forthcoming tri-series in Bangladesh in June and the start of the Asia Cup in Pakistan.
The drunken-driving case against 2010 Soccer World Cup chief security officer Linda Mti was postponed in the Hillbrow Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday until next month. State prosecutor Mabuse Monareng requested the postponement because the state witness was writing exams.