The Cape High Court on Thursday postponed Najwa Pietersen’s second bail appeal to January 28, to be heard by a full bench instead of a single judge as initially planned. Pietersen is to go on trial in the Cape High Court for the alleged murder of her famous husband, Taliep.
A South African man was killed and eaten by lions at a game farm in the country’s North West province, police said on Thursday. Samuel Boosen, a 36-year-old caretaker at the Aloe Ridge Lodge at Swartruggens, about 150km west of Johannesburg, went into the lion enclosure to feed the animals before being attacked on Tuesday.
More than 200 militants were killed in last month’s major operation to retake the southern Taliban stronghold of Musa Qala, the Afghan Defence Ministry said on Thursday. Seventeen Taliban commanders were among the dead following the military operation to drive out the rebels, who had held the small town for 10 months, the ministry said.
The death toll from political violence in Algeria jumped to 56 in December from six in the previous month, bringing to 491 the number of those killed in 2007, according to a Reuters count based on newspaper reports. A total of 37 people, including 17 United Nations staff, were killed in a double suicide bombing in the capital, Algiers, on December 11.
Some of Zimbabwe’s striking state doctors have returned to work on humanitarian grounds but most are still holding out for higher pay, the head of the doctors’ union said on Thursday. Amon Siveregi, president of the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors’ Association, said the industrial action had not been called off, contrary to reports in the state media.
Gold struck a new all-time peak of almost $868 dollars on Thursday as the precious metal benefited from its safe-haven status amid record high oil, a struggling dollar and Pakistan tensions, analysts said. The price of gold reached a historic $867,90 an ounce on the London Bullion Market. It later slipped slightly to stand at $866,90.
VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid evoked memories of two of India’s greatest comebacks with a scintillating 175-run partnership in the second Test against Australia on Thursday. Laxman smashed 109 and Dravid a watchful 53 to guide the tourists out of immediate danger to 216-3 at stumps on the second day at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
China has pledged 5 000 tonnes of food aid this year to Zimbabwe, where more than four million people will soon require aid, the official Herald newspaper reported on Thursday. Deputy Chinese ambassador Ma Deyun also said that her country and Zimbabwe wanted to increase trade to -million in 2008 as China expands its presence in Southern Africa.
The names of three banks and the word "stocks" beat "sex" to become four of the most Googled words in China last year, according to a Google China list seen on Thursday. China Merchants Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and China Construction Bank ranked second, third and sixth, according to a list supplied by Google China on its website.
Kenyan police fired tear gas and water cannon on Thursday at thousands of anti-government protesters chanting ”Peace” and singing the national anthem as they tried to march to a banned rally. Nairobi became a battleground as shots rang around, crowds ran to-and-fro, riot police thronged the streets and plumes of smoke rose.