A man pleaded guilty on Friday to driving at 277km/h in a high-performance sports car on a public road, making him the fastest motorist ever caught speeding in Britain. Timothy Brady was caught driving a £98 000 Porsche 911 Turbo in a random police speed check on a trunk road near Abingdon, south central England, in January this year.
Mafika Sihlali, head of legal services for the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), was suspended on Friday, the national broadcaster said. Sihlali was suspended with full pay, pending a disciplinary inquiry after allegations of corruption and abuse of power were levelled against him.
The Gauteng branch of the South African National Civic Organisation’s (Sanco) request for an investigation into the Sunday Times editor was ”legitimate”, the national leadership said on Friday. This conflicted with an earlier statement by a Sanco national executive committee member who rejected the provincial body’s call for a probe.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres, said Zimbabweans fleeing from the economic crisis into South Africa were not entitled to refugee status, and border camps should not be set up to accommodate them, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Friday.
From the ground it looked an impossible manoeuvre. The Russian Sukhoi-35 shot vertically into the sky before flipping forward in midair. It then raced downwards with an ear-ripping roar. The crowds were impressed. Even seasoned United States pilots standing on the tarmac looked on admiringly.
Sierra Leone’s main opposition parties will campaign jointly against Vice-President Solomon Berewa in a presidential run-off after taking control of the West African country’s Parliament, a party chief said on Friday. The move puts All People’s Congress leader Ernest Bai Koroma in position to succeed outgoing President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah.
The Johannesburg High Court on Friday reserved judgement in the dispute between Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and the Sunday Times over her confidential hospital records. Judge Mahomed Jajbhay said he would make his decision in seven days. ”I will reflect most of the weekend on the matter,” he told both parties.
The families of Islamist fighters besieged in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon were evacuated by the army on Friday, opening the way for a possible final military assault. The military agreed to a temporary truce on Friday with the Fatah al-Islam fighters to allow the civilians to leave the camp.
Russian prosecutors announced an investigation on Friday after the discovery of what are thought to be the remains of the last two unaccounted children of murdered Tsar Nicholas II: his heir Alexei and daughter Maria. The prosecutor general’s office is reopening a criminal investigation into the 1918 murder of Russia’s royal family.
Zimbabweans fleeing into South Africa are not entitled to refugee status and border camps should not be set up to accommodate them, a senior Department of Home Affairs official said on Friday. South Africa has received the largest number of people escaping food and fuel shortages in Zimbabwe.