The Olympic flame spluttered into life on Thursday in a ceremony in the olive groves of ancient Olympia amid unprecedented levels of security. A Greek actor dressed as a high priestess invoked Apollo, the god of light, to ignite the torch over a concave mirror.
Replacements Roy Kinikinilau and Piri Weepu combined for a try and conversion four minutes from full-time to give Wellington a 26-26 draw with the Auckland Blues in Super 12 rugby on Friday. The draw left the Blues, last year’s champions, locked only one place from the bottom of the championship ladder.
Deputy President Jacob Zuma prides himself on keeping the negotiating screws tightened. Drawing a lesson from South Africa’s past, he believed that high pressure tactics were what scored him the most notable successes in facilitating the near-peace in Burundi.
Thirty people were killed, including three police offiers, as security forces violently quashed an anti-government protest in Abidjan on Thursday, said one of the organisers, the opposition Rally of the Republicans. After the quashing of the protest, the Rally of the Republicans said it was pulling out of the unity government.
A pharmacy assistant’s dirty hands were the main reason why six babies died earlier this month in the Pelonomi hospital in Bloemfontein. Dr Victor Litlhakanyane, head of the Free State health department, told a news conference on Thursday that the assistant who prepared foodstuffs for the babies had washed his hands in a dirty basin.
The World Bank has granted Malawi -million to resettle 25Â 000 farmers under a controversial land reform programme aimed at reducing poverty in the Southern African nation, its land minister said on Thursday. The World Bank is a major sponsor of the country’s tough economic reforms.
Islamic extremists had planned a bomb attack on Milan’s main railway station similar to that which rocked Madrid on March 11, Italian media reports said on Thursday. The daily Corriere della Sera newspaper said the attacks were planned between 1997 and 2001.
The Roman Catholic Church in Mozambique’s northern Nampula region on Thursday insisted its claims of a human organ-trafficking network operating in the province and targeting children were true. The church demanded a continued probe to bring the alleged criminals to book.
Up to 55 militants may have been killed in Pakistan’s biggest assault to date against al-Qaeda-linked targets, Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat said on Thursday. About 7 500 army and paramilitary troops have been pounding the hideouts of an estimated 500 al-Qaeda-linked militants and their local tribal supporters.
The Communication Workers Union (CWU) said on Thursday it was shocked by the announcement of further job cuts by Telkom at a time when parties were still negotiating alternatives. The CWU was reacting to a news report stating that Telkom planned to cut its workforce by between 7% and 10% a year over the next three years.