Four police officers have been arrested over a burglary from the serious and violent crime unit’s safe in Benoni on the East Rand, media reports said on Wednesday. The reported arrests come a week after millions of rands in foreign currency were stolen from the safe last Wednesday night.
Zimbabwe’s central bank will issue a new Z$100Â 000 banknote after inflation topped 1Â 000% last month, one of the world’s highest rates, a state daily reported on Wednesday. The new banknote, worth US98c, will go into circulation on Thursday and will hold tender until December, the <i>Herald</i> newspaper said. Zimbabwe started introducing bearer cheques with a temporary validity three years ago.
World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz on Wednesday congratulated African nations for launching a campaign against corruption but said rich countries have to cooperate to stamp out graft. In a speech to businessmen in Seoul, South Korea, Wolfowitz said rich countries are deeply implicated in corruption in Africa.
HIV/Aids is a global emergency and urgent action needs to be taken rather than spewing out words about the pandemic, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town Njongonkulu Ndungane said in a statement on Tuesday, on the eve of a high-level United Nations meeting on HIV/Aids in New York from Wednesday.
The strength of South Africa’s athletes in the 400m hurdles was clearly demonstrated at the Golden Spike IAAF World Tour meeting in Ostrava, Slovakia, on Tuesday night when LJ van Zyl and Ockert Cilliers finished second and third respectively. The race was won by world champion Bershawn Jackson of the United States.
Tiger Woods ended speculation that he might skip the United States Open while grieving over the death of his father, Earl, by announcing on Tuesday that he plans to tee it up at the second major of the season. Woods’s participation in the 106th US Open would end the longest layoff of his pro career.
Once the slight, grey-haired American was recognised in the Hong Kong auction room, it was no great surprise that Steve Wynn went on to pay the world-record price for a small, beautiful, copper red-and-white porcelain vase — HK 520 000 (R69,5-million). What happened next was extraordinary.
Transatlantic air travellers face the threat of major disruptions after the European Court of Justice declared it illegal for airlines to hand over passengers’ personal details to the United States authorities. The ruling annuls a controversial deal on passenger details between Brussels and Washington.
On the surface, it seemed as if Alexis Quinlin’s biggest fault was name dropping. The New York-based entrepreneur could not resist telling potential investors in his firm how he had partied with Madonna and done deals with Mick Jagger, Richard Branson and Eric Clapton, or how he would collaborate with Quentin Tarantino on the next James Bond film.
Al Gore has made his sharpest attack yet on the George Bush presidency, describing the current US administration as ”a renegade band of right-wing extremists”. The former vice-president has launched into the political fray more explicitly than he has previously done during his campaigning on the threat of global warming.