French judges placed former prime minister Dominique de Villepin under formal investigation on Friday for his role in an alleged plot to smear Nicolas Sarkozy and damage his chances of winning the presidency. Villepin went to the offices of judges Jean-Marie d’Huy and Henri Pons on Friday morning to answer questions.
After five years of soaring shares and an economic upswing lasting nearly as long, fear is now spreading its way through Wall Street. Investors are worried that the debacle on the American real-estate and construction market will have serious effects on more than just the mortgage market.
A 33-year-old man who stabbed a Pretoria prosecutor 14 times in her office while stealing her cellphone was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment in the Pretoria High Court on Friday. Sipho Mnisi grabbed prosecutor Marisa Booyse’s cellphone in her office at the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court in September last year and, when she tried to stop him, he attacked and stabbed.
Britain’s royals were visiting the scene of the United Kingdom’s worst floods in 60 years on Friday as emergency teams battled to cope with the crisis one week after it struck. The floods, the second set to hit Britain within a month, have claimed at least two lives, and the total number of properties swamped could reach 15 000.
At first glance, Tottenham Hotspur manager Martin Jol conjures up a picture of an imposing Rottweiler. And on Saturday, when Spurs take on Orlando Pirates in the finale to the Vodacom Challenge series of pre-season friendlies at Loftus, there can be little doubt about the ferocity of purpose with which the Netherlands-born manager will be barking orders.
Warning: This story contains spoilers.
MOVIE OF THE WEEK: Shaun de Waal reviews The Simpsons Movie, which packs in a great deal of inventive incident and humour.
Why have not very many people heard of Nanda Soobben? Niren Tolsi reports.
Athletics South Africa (ASA) has denied that athletes Louis van Zyl and Alwyn Myburgh absconded from Team SA at the All Africa Games in Algiers last week. ”We knew they were going to compete in Monaco but there is no question of them absconding from the South African team,” said ASA president Leonard Chuene on Friday.
Baby-killer Dina Rodrigues and her four co-accused were on Friday granted permission to appeal against their sentences. Cape High Court Judge Basheer Waglay, however, rejected applications by Rodrigues and three of the men to appeal against their convictions.