The African National Congress (ANC) will mark its 96th anniversary and deliver its traditional ”January 8” address during a huge event at Tshwane’s Super Stadium in Atteridgeville on Saturday. The address will be delivered by the party’s newly elected president, Jacob Zuma, to mark the day the party was established.
A 29-year-old man was arrested after two Somalis were found burnt to death in their shop at Duncan Village in East London, Eastern Cape police said on Monday. Spokesperson Captain Stephen Marais said the deceased, Said Khalif (17) and Badal Shiek Mohamed (26), were confronted by four men who took money and household goods before killing them on Sunday.
Weeks before her death Princess Diana said that her relationship with Dodi Fayed was finished, a British jury heard on Monday as the inquest into the couple’s fatal car crash resumed. Speaking at the first session of the inquest since the Christmas break, Rodney Turner, a friend of the princess, said she told him a few weeks before the crash that the relationship had finished.
Former state vice-president Alwyn Schlebusch died in Pretoria on January 7 at the age of 90, his son said. Schlebusch, who served as a National Party MP for two decades and held several Cabinet portfolios, was admitted to the Pretoria East Hospital two weeks ago and was in the intensive-care unit when he died.
Roger Federer’s Australian Open preparations suffered a blow on Monday as the defending champion was forced to withdraw from the Kooyong Classic warm-up event owing to a virus. Federer said that he came down with the bug on the weekend after arriving in the city on Friday from Dubai, where he trains in the off-season.
The Bulls’ chances of defending their Super 14 rugby title suffered a blow Monday when inside centre Wayne Julies was ruled out of the competition with a knee injury. Team doctor Tommie Smook, who will stay on with the Bulls until the end of the Super 14, on Monday said Julies had to undergo an operation and will not be able to play for at least six months.
An Austrian tourist said he had been questioned in Sudan on suspicion of being a spy after police found articles about a former rebel group in his luggage. Thomas Hirschvogel (20) wrote on his blog he had been barred from leaving the coastal city of Port Sudan while police carried out an investigation.
After Microsoft founder and chairperson Bill Gates gave what he said was his last keynote address to the Consumer Electronics Show late on Sunday night, it’s worth bearing in mind that he has often been dramatically wrong about where he thought technology was heading.
The threat of open conflict between Sudan and neighbouring Chad is rising, with each side accusing the other of seeking to destabilise their already tense common border. Sudan said on Sunday it was ready for any Chadian attack the day after Chadian President Idriss Déby Itno said his forces would pursue rebels into Sudan’s region of Darfur.
A Boeing 747 was forced to return to OR Tambo International Airport after an engine failed more than one hour into the flight, KLM said on Monday. Air France and KLM general manager Yeshwant Pawar said flight 592 was on its way to Amsterdam when engine number one failed only one-and-a-half hours into the flight.