South Africa’s trade balance shifted further into deficit in June, recording a shortfall of R5,31-billion and keeping pressure on South Africa’s current account, official data showed on Tuesday. The data follows May’s smaller R2,67-billion shortfall and compares with expectations of a R3,5-billion gap.
India beat England by seven wickets to win the second Test on the fifth and final day at Trent Bridge on Tuesday to go 1-0 up in the three-match series. Resuming on 10 without loss, India needed just a further 63 to achieve their victory target of 73 and England required an astonishing fightback.
At least eight people were killed in attacks in southern and central Somalia, during which four people were also wounded, witnesses said on Tuesday. In a one-hour gun battle between 40 heavily armed insurgents and government soldiers in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, two men and a four year-old child were killed, said Abdi Mo’alin Mohamed, a clan elder.
About 70% of South Africans believe the country will be ready to host the 2010 Soccer World Cup, a survey by African Response has found. Jo’burgers were slightly more optimistic, with 76% of them believing that the country would be ready. Only 60% of Capetonians agreed.
Claims that a killer shark has been spotted off the English coast were dismissed on Tuesday as alarmist, just as holidaymakers head en masse for the seaside. The scare started after a tourist took pictures of a menacing-looking fin jutting from the water last week, 180m from the beach near the popular Cornish resort of St Ives.
Old habits die hard and that’s certainly the case for former triple Formula One champion Nelson Piquet, who has lost his driving licence for repeated speeding offences. As punishment the 54-year-old Brazilian has had to suffer the indignity of being sent back to school to brush up on the rules of the road.
The issue of savings in South Africa was not just an economic question, but also a matter of changing attitudes, said director general of the National Treasury, Lesetja Kganyago, on Tuesday. "We must ask as South Africans why are we consuming more than we are earning?"
The trial of the four travel agents still standing in the parliamentary travel-voucher fraud case will only start next year, it emerged on Tuesday. The four, Soraya Beukes, Mpho Lebelo, Graham Geduldt and Estelle Aggujaro, made a brief appearance in the Cape High Court for yet another postponement.
Lesotho needs ,9-million to help feed more than a third of its population after the country’s crop was destroyed by a prolonged dry spell during the 2006/07 cropping season, the United Nations said on Tuesday. About 550 000 people out of 1,8-million in Lesotho will need food aid between now and the next harvest in May next year, the UN said.
Wallaby coach John Connolly has dismissed suggestions that a rift in the coaching staff threatens to ruin the team’s chances at the Rugby World Cup in France, which starts in September. A report has claimed that the relationship of the four-man coaching staff of Connolly, Michael Foley, Scott Johnson and John Muggleton was ”edgy” and there were intense divisions within the camp.