Saharan sand dunes stretch to the horizon in Timimoun, an oasis town of red clay where visitors can ride camels with Tuareg nomads and sleep on dunes under the stars. Timimoun should be easy to get to, but it isn’t. It offers few comforts after a long, arduous journey. But those few tourists who make it here value its remoteness.
Talk of China’s interest in a stake in BHP Billiton has sent the resources index northward and, in turn, helped the JSE advance further by midday on Wednesday. Dow Jones newswires said that the <i>Australian</i> reported in its Wednesday edition China is in the early stages of planning to buy a stake in miner BHP Billiton.
A buoyant South Africa will be keen to capitalise on India’s form and fitness worries ahead of Friday’s third and final Test in Kanpur to complete a hat-trick in the subcontinent. The visitors lead 1-0 in the series following their crushing win by an innings and 90 runs in the second Test in Ahmedabad last Saturday after the opening match ended in a draw in Chennai.
One of the most decisive rates meetings yet of the South African Reserve Bank’s monetary policy committee (MPC) began on Wednesday morning with "no hitches", according to a bank spokesperson. The meeting will end after lunchtime on Thursday, with the final decision announced live to the public just after 3pm.
On a screen at the front of a classroom, Gene Fishel flashed an online social-networking profile of "hotlilflgirl", which said she was 15, enjoyed being around boys and wanted to meet new people. The next image revealed the real "hotlilflgirl" — a mug shot of a man who was convicted of sexually abusing 11 children he met online.
Hot on the heels of winning blog of the year at the SA Blog Awards, the <i>Mail & Guardian Online</i>’s <i>Thought Leader</i> has been named an "official honoree" by the Webby Awards, alongside blogs by CNN, CBS News, the <i>New Yorker</i>, CNBC, the <i>New York Times</i>, <i>Time</i> magazine and the Observer Media Group.
Kenyan leaders were on Wednesday under pressure to resume talks on forming a coalition government in a bid to end a devastating political crisis, a day after hundreds demonstrated to demand a new Cabinet. The much-delayed unveiling of a national-unity government is a key step in implementing a power-sharing deal aimed at quelling deadly violence.
It probably cannot all be put down to Australian referee Paul Marks’s inept handling of the Super 14 match between the Hurricanes and the Sharks in Wellington on Saturday, but there are now thoughts of the International Rugby Board (IRB) appointing Super 14 referees rather than the three Sanzar unions.
The naked body of a prominent Limpopo magistrate was found lying next to a used condom in a bush near Giyani, the Sowetan reported on Wednesday. The body was identified as that of Giyani magistrate Nuel Maluleke (58), of Mphangane village near Giyani.
France’s interior minister faulted the Chinese organisers of the Olympic torch relay for its chaotic run through Paris, saying in an interview on Wednesday that French police merely provided technical support. "The Olympic rule is that the organising country is always responsible for preserving the flame," Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said.