An Australian <i>Star Wars</i> fan has been left regretting his brush with "the Force" after police arrested him for carrying a toy laser. The 32-year-old was walking through central Melbourne on Thursday when the pistol-shaped laser poking out of his backpack sparked a security scare at the city’s Crown Casino.
More than 10 000 public-service workers started marching in Pretoria on Friday demanding better pay and working conditions. Much of the protesters’ anger was aimed at Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi. Protesters sang songs blaming her for the breakdown in pay talks between the unions and the government.
North Korea fired several short-range missiles on Friday morning, even as the United States sounded optimistic about getting six-party talks on Pyongyang’s nuclear-arms programme back on track. Nippon Television said the missiles were surface-to-ship types, and public broadcaster NHK quoted government officials as saying they would not pose a threat to Japan’s security.
A deophobic sermon Shaun de Waal has written a deophobic sermon (“Fighting fire with fire”, May 25), but needs to deal with the evidence evenhandedly. If the wrong religion has done is evidence that belief in God is false, is the right religion has done evidence that belief in God is true? Likewise, does the […]
A number of power failures across Johannesburg on Friday morning could be linked to overloading and cable theft or damage to cables by third parties, City Power said. Spokesperson Louis Pieterse said power failures in parts of Parkmore, Houghton, Kensington, Wisonia, Glenvista and Boksburg affected individual households, not every resident in those areas.
Peace will not prevail in the Middle East unless Israel stops its aggression against Palestinian people, Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils said on Friday. Speaking during the Intelligence Department’s budget-vote debate in the National Assembly, Kasrils said Israel must start making positive moves.
Pirates captured an Indian dhow close to the Somali capital, Mogadishu, a Kenyan maritime official said on Friday, in the latest raid off one of the world’s most dangerous coastlines. Andrew Mwangura, director of the East African Seafarers’ Assistance Programme, said he had no information about the crew or cargo aboard the vessel, the Al Haqeeq.
Radical Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr appeared for Friday prayers at his local mosque in Kufa, central Iraq, five months after United States commanders claimed he had fled to Iran. The young preacher, the leader of one of Iraq’s most powerful armed movements, arrived at the mosque surrounded by an entourage of Shi’ite clerics.
As ski resorts go, Kashmir’s Gulmarg must rank as the most militarised on earth. The mountain road is peppered with security checkpoints and a High Altitude Warfare School lies nearby. Troops squeeze into a cable car with rifles between their legs. On the slopes, some tourists openly worry if mines are buried under the snow.
The JSE was lower at midday on Friday weighed down by miners on easing base-metal prices and weaker overseas markets. At 12.02pm, the all-share index was off 1,28%. Resources lost 1,47% and the gold- and platinum-mining indices fell 1,71% and 1,95% respectively. Industrials weakened 1,09%, banks gave up 1,46% and financials eased 1,26%.