A total of 95 Cape Town metro police officers have been suspended in the wake of Wednesday’s protest, council spokesperson Pieter Cronje said on Thursday. The officers face disciplinary and criminal charges after they drove in a cavalcade to the civic centre, causing morning rush-hour traffic jams on the N2.
A South African man shot three weeks ago was told to ”walk the pain off” and is still trying to persuade hospitals to remove the bullet lodged in his side, it was reported on Thursday. Three Johannesburg hospitals refused to remove the bullet for security guard Phillip Mashiane (38), who was shot during a burglary.
Kenya has cut malaria deaths among children under five by 44% on 2002 levels thanks largely to the increased use of insecticide treated nets (INTs), the government said on Thursday. The Health Ministry said the distribution of 13,4-million INTs over the past five years among children and pregnant women had helped curtail infections, a key success against a disease threatening 40% of the world’s population.
Zimbabwe on Thursday rejected the need for political reform in the Southern African nation at a summit of regional leaders that is meant to find ways to ease the country’s political and economic crisis. Southern African Development Community leaders met to consider the crisis in Zimbabwe but the prospects for progress looked slim.
Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson admitted Cristiano Ronaldo’s red card was the last thing he needed as Chelsea opened a four-point lead over their title rivals. Ferguson said the dismissal for a head-butt was all Ronaldo’s fault as the champions were held 1-1 by Portsmouth at Fratton Park, United’s second draw in their two games so far this season.
The JSE remained firmly in the red by noon on Thursday as subprime concerns continued to plague investors. At midday, the JSE all-share was off 3,26%. Resources lost 3,87%, the gold-mining index was 3,42% lower and the platinum-mining index fell 2,84%. Financials shed 3,26% and banks tumbled 4,10%, while industrials were down 2,56%.
Andriy Voronin scored two minutes before half-time, and five-time winners Liverpool won 1-0 at Toulouse on Wednesday to move a step closer to the lucrative group stage of the Champions League. Voronin fired a rising shot from 20m after collecting a headed pass from Peter Crouch.
Now that toy companies have issued recalls for millions of Chinese-made toys that are either tainted with lead or otherwise hazardous to children, they are scrambling to figure out what to do with them. Mattel, which on Tuesday recalled about 18-million toys worldwide, said it was working on a ”responsible approach”.
The Namibian government said on Wednesday it will continue culling seals after a meeting with animal rights activists failed to halt the mass killings. The government argues the seals consume 900 000 tonnes of fish a year, more than one-third of the fishing-industry catch.
Sanctions against former Liberian president Charles Taylor and his entourage are impairing his ability to defend himself against war-crimes charges, his lawyer said on Wednesday. The sanctions are having a ”chilling effect” as witnesses sympathetic to Taylor are afraid to come forward, said the lawyer.