Somali Islamists said on Thursday they had arrested two Muslim militiamen accused of shooting dead two people this week during a protest in central Somalia against a ban on watching the World Cup. The pair is to be tried, possibly for murder, under Sharia law according to two senior clerics involved in the case.
Spaniard Oscar Freire of Rabobank won the fifth stage of the Tour de France held over 225km between Beauvais and Caen on Thursday. Belgium’s Tom Boonen, who finished second on the stage ahead of Spain’s Inaki Isasi in third, retained the race leader’s yellow jersey by 13 seconds from Australian Michael Rogers ahead of Friday’s 189km.
The Free State Cheetahs coaching staff, led by Rassie Erasmus, believes their first real test of the Currie Cup season will come when the defending champions face the Lions on Saturday. The Cheetahs are coming off two massive wins, over Griquas and the Falcons, while the Lions are coming off successive losses.
A new Dutch Cabinet under Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende enjoying only minority support in Parliament prepared for office on Thursday to take the country to early elections in November. The new Cabinet comprises all but two of the members of Balkenende’s last administration that resigned last week.
The plastics on Thursday finally came off the controversial statue of the man said to have inspired the naming of the metropole of Tshwane. The 6,2m bronzed figure of Chief Tshwane was unveiled in a low-key ceremony outside the Pretoria city hall, months after it was erected and put under wraps.
Aids-ravaged Zimbabwe is hoping to double the number of people on antiretrovirals (ARV) in order to reach 70Â 000 sufferers by the end of 2006, a top official said on Thursday. "We are certainly going to increase the number of people on ARVs," said Raymond Yekeye, operations manager of the National Aids Council.
Some of the accused in the multimillion-dollar heist at Johannesburg International airport claim they were forced to admit they were involved in the crime, the Kempton Park regional court heard on Thursday. The court heard that Nazir Ismail had said earlier in the week his statement was not made voluntarily but under duress, and that he did not intend testifying for the state.
The Airports Company South Africa on Thursday introduced a new convenient ”pick-up-and-go” parking area at the Johannesburg International airport. ”This facility will be free for the first five minutes to people picking up passengers from the international arrivals terminal as of tomorrow [Friday],” said the airport’s landside manager, Kesavan Naicker.
An elderly South African woman has laid claim to be the world’s oldest person — 132 years — and an organisation representing the old is adamant the accomplishment be officially recognised, a report said Thursday. Moloko Temo of Bochum in the country’s northern Limpopo province was reportedly born on July 4 1874.
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Germany striker Miroslav Klose says he is desperate to win the Golden Boot title after missing out on Sunday’s World Cup final in Berlin. Klose leads the scoring charts with five goals and has the chance to put more distance between him and his rivals when hosts Germany take on Portugal in Saturday’s third-place play-off in Stuttgart.