Zimbabwean Vice-President Joseph Msika has warned that businesses in the country will suffer if they fail to stock their shelves with goods, reports said on Wednesday. Msika, who was speaking in the east of the country, said President Robert Mugabe’s government was at war with retailers and manufacturers.
The JSE remained lower at noon Wednesday in tandem with overseas markets but miners managed modest gains amid better precious metal prices and concerns over wage talks. At noon the all-share index off 0,70%. Resources fell 0,99%, but the gold and platinum mining indices edged up 0,31% and 0,26% respectively.
French hopes of seeing one of their own riders fight for the Tour de France yellow jersey have been kept alive by a tiring, but optimistic Christophe Moreau. Moreau will go into the first of three ”transitional” stages on Wednesday in sixth place overall at three minutes and 18 seconds behind leader Michael Rasmussen.
Mexico’s Tigres UANL easily handled the Los Angeles Galaxy 3-0 in the opening match on Tuesday of the four-team tournament billed as the ”World Series of Football”. England’s Chelsea beat South Korea’s Suwon Bluewings 1-0 in the late match.
Australian coach John Connolly on Wednesday defended rushing fullback Chris Latham back from injury for Saturday’s crunch Tri-Nations and Bledisloe Cup decider against New Zealand. Wallaby legend Tim Horan has slammed the decision to put Latham on the bench, saying he is not ready to return to Test rugby.
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President Thabo Mbeki has wished his predecessor Nelson Mandela, who turns 89 on Wednesday, a happy birthday. Mbeki on Tuesday said the celebration of Mandela’s birthday was an opportunity to ”re-dedicate ourselves to the ideals and values for which he has stood and continued to uphold”.
Libya lifted death sentences on Tuesday against five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor convicted of deliberately infecting children with HIV, paving the way for them to be freed after eight years in jail. The ruling, following a payment of -million each to 460 HIV victims’ families, fell short of freeing the medics.
Najwa Petersen, accused of murdering her showbiz husband Taliep Petersen, has started her 30-day observation and evaluation period at Valkenberg Psychiatric Hospital. Last week, Magistrate Robert Henney denied bail for 45-year-old Petersen and one of her three co-accused, Abdoer Raasiet Emjedi.
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Playing soccer, often clandestinely and using rolled-up rags for balls, raised the spirits of South African political activists jailed on Robben Island over three decades ago. Now the former prisoners’ experiences will give hope to millions in a new movie.
Set the dining table, light some candles and crack open a nice bag of wine. Serving guests wine from a plastic pouch or box may no longer be a social faux pas, say some in the wine industry — as consumers warm to packaging that is seen as kinder to the environment than glass bottles.