Robert Pires is leaving Champions League finalists Arsenal for a two-year deal with Spanish side Villarreal, the French winger confirmed on Thursday. ”After six wonderful years at Arsenal, full of fantastic moments, I have decided to accept a new challenge at Villarreal for the next two years of my career,” the 32-year-old said on the English Premiership side’s website.
The government of Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe said it would ”descend” on schools in the country that hiked fees without permission from the authorities, it was reported on Thursday. The threat appears to be directed mainly at private schools, which are often run by trusts in Zimbabwe.
The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) has invited Sudan to join the powerful oil-industry cartel, the official Suna news agency reported on Thursday. Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo extended the invitation in a message delivered on Wednesday to Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir, the agency said.
While the public service has done much in forming legislative and regulatory frameworks and policies, it needs to put this into practice, the Public Service Commission said on Thursday. Releasing the fifth annual state of the public service report, Professor Stan Sangweni said it focused on the capacity of the public service to deliver on its programmes.
Blood-spattered bullet cases, boots and communication radios lay scattered on the street outside the justice ministry in Dili, East Timor on Thursday as the East Timorese capital descended into chaos. In the latest violence of days of clashes, 20 rapid-reaction police came under attack by rampaging rebel soldiers early on Thursday.
Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana was considering resuming public wage negotiations in the troubled security sector, provided no harm came to officials, the Department of Labour said on Thursday. ”I am tempted to allow my officials to go ahead with the hearings in line with the Basic Conditions of Employment Act,” Mdladlana said from Cape Town.
Cellphone operator Vodacom criticised draft interception legislation on Thursday for placing an onerous and expensive burden on the industry and clients. ”This proposed Act needs more careful thought in terms of its unintended consequences before becoming law,” Vodacom CEO Alan Knott-Craig said in a statement.
At least seven people were killed and 14 wounded on Thursday as clashes between radical Islamic forces and a United States-backed warlord alliance flared in the lawless Somalia capital, residents said. The two sides pounded each other with heavy machine guns, rockets, artillery and mortar fire in four residential districts in southern and northern Mogadishu.
The Wellington Hurricanes have sounded the battle cry ”Get McCaw” as they set their plan to target the All Blacks captain in the Super 14 rugby final against the Canterbury Crusaders at Jade Stadium in Christchurch on Saturday. The Crusaders have played in seven of the past eight finals, and won five of them.
A small earthquake caused panic in Stockholm on Wednesday night when inhabitants mistook a loud bang for an explosion, police said. Hundreds of Stockholm residents alerted police and abandoned their homes when they heard the noise, fearing a bomb had gone off.