Workers rebuilding a 19th-century Moscow house unearthed the remains of nearly three dozen people apparently dating back to the era of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s political purges nearly 70 years ago, police officials said on Thursday. Police also found a rusted pistol on the estate where the remains of an estimated 34 people were discovered.
The government has ten days to submit its reports to an official inquiry on why National Prosecuting Authority head Vusi Pikoli is not fit to hold office, former speaker of the National Assembly Frene Ginwala said on Thursday. These reports would be examined at an official hearing into Pikoli’s fitness to hold office.
Mining is and always will be a dangerous business. But every time there is a seismic event, a rockfall, or, as happened this week, a broken lift, a new round of muttering begins.
Talks between protesting students at the University of the Witwatersrand and management will continue, vice-chancellor and principle Loyiso Nongxa said at a media briefing on Thursday. ”Negotiations between students and management will continue on Friday until a compromise is reached,” he said.
Convicted paedophile Gordon Joubert was given a collective jail sentence of 192 years in the Johannesburg High Court on Thursday, the Star newspaper reported. After his conviction earlier, Joubert suggested to the court the appropriate sentence for him was to be castrated, but the judge ruled otherwise.
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In 1995, Max Brito, a dashing, 24-year-old dreadlocked winger, arrived at the Rugby World Cup full of hope for himself and his Côte d’Ivoire team. But after just three minutes of the group game against Tonga in Rustenburg in South Africa, he collapsed under a crunching tackle from flanker Inoke Afeaki and was crushed beneath an avalanche of bodies.
Telephone bills and furniture were prioritised over hospital equipment at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, the national and provincial health departments said on Thursday. In a joint statement, the departments cited ”deficiencies on the management side” as the reason the hospital did not have required equipment.
Former National Lottery operator Uthingo has no intention of contesting the awarding of the lottery licence to Gidani, company chairperson Barney Pityana said on Thursday. ”We do not agree, but we do not intend to subject the licensing process to further scrutiny by the courts,” Pityana told reporters at Midrand.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, on her first visit to sub-Saharan Africa, called on Thursday for more democratic opening in Ethiopia, a key ally of the West now under scrutiny over rights issues. On the first leg of a five-day tour, the German leader urged Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to provide greater space in Ethiopia for both political opposition and the media.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the world could not stop the Islamic state’s nuclear programme, which the West fears is a cover to build nuclear bomb, the official IRNA news agency said on Thursday. Ahmadinejad was speaking the day after French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner called on the European Union to take the lead in widening financial sanctions on Iran.