The moment of truth for South Africa’s Hendrick Ramaala, Norman Dlomo, George Mofokeng, Bethuel Netshifhefhe and Zongamele Dyubeni is about to be realised. On Saturday, the men’s marathon final at the 11th IAAF World Athletics Championships in Osaka, Japan, takes place at 11pm South African time.
A cracked pylon may have caused a fuel leak that led to the fire and explosion of the China Airlines Boeing 737-800 at Japan’s Naha airport two days ago, Taiwan media reported on Wednesday. The 157 passengers and eight crew escaped safely, barely three minutes before the jet caught fire and exploded into three parts.
United States internet giant Google is to begin running advertisements along with video clips on its popular video-sharing website YouTube, according to a statement on the YouTube official blog. The ads will run as ”animated overlays that appear on the bottom 20% of a video”, said Google late on Tuesday.
A helicopter went down in northern Iraq on Wednesday, killing all 14 United States soldiers aboard, the military said, the deadliest crash since January 2005. Iraqi security forces also faced more violence in northern Iraq, with a roadside bomb targeting a police patrol in the centre of Tikrit.
The HIV prevalence rate in Madagascar may be lower than that in Southern Africa countries, but the level of stigma is just as high.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and the state attorney have until Thursday to say if they will pay the legal fees of a former Scorpions boss accused of corruption, theft and fraud. The trial of Geophrey Ledwaba did not begin on Wednesday as his counsel asked for yet another postponement.
Rude graffiti on a wall in Orania had the conservative Afrikaner community in the Northern Cape in a rage recently, media reports said on Wednesday. A resident who was apparently squatting on a plot spent the weekend in jail in Hopetown after he fired shots when residents gave him a tin of paint to cover the crude words.
The JSE was up strongly at midday on Wednesday, taking its cue from a rally in Asian markets. The Hang Seng gained 2,84% and the Shanghai added 0,5%, while the Singapore Straites Times collected 2,61%. At midday on the JSE, the all-share index was up 1,67%. Resources gained 2,31%, and the gold- and platinum-mining indices edged up 0,79% and 0,45% respectively.
The Independent Democrats has accused airport check-in staff and baggage handlers of corruption and endangering flight safety. Simon Grindrod, the party’s deputy leader and a member of Cape Town’s mayoral executive committee, said that check-in staff are accepting bribes not to charge for excess baggage.
Recommendations by a parliamentary committee for the National Youth Commission to form part of an overarching human rights body would further undermine youth development, the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) said on Wednesday.