The Western Force notched a club-record third straight victory with a gritty 22-12 Super 14 win over the often undisciplined Coastal Sharks at Subiaco Oval in Perth on Friday. The result in front of a noisy crowd of 28Â 400 kept the Force right in the hunt for a finals berth in just their second season in the competition and confirmed their status as the leading Australian contender.
Rebels shot down a helicopter gunship in Mogadishu on Friday in a second day of battles as Ethiopian and Somali forces sought to crush an insurgency by Islamists and clan militia. At least 30 people, and probably far more, have died. Shells rained down on the capital and deafening tank fire shattered homes.
South African private-sector credit demand accelerated in February, denting expectations that the central bank will not need to raise interest rates next month. Reserve Bank data showed on Friday that private-sector credit extension grew 26,12% year-on-year (y/y) in February, from 24,83% in January, clouding the interest-rate outlook in Africa’s economic powerhouse.
The Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) decision to appoint President Thabo Mbeki as mediator in Zimbabwe was both lauded and ridiculed on Friday. ”The Inkatha Freedom Party [IFP] welcomes the SADC’s decision to call on President Thabo Mbeki …,” IFP spokesperson Ben Skosana said in a statement.
South Africa recorded a smaller-than-expected trade deficit of R2,7-billion in February, down from R11,94-billion in January, the South African Revenue Service (Sars) said on Friday. Sars said exports rose 23% while imports fell 5%, compared with the previous month, thanks to a decrease in imports of mineral products including oil, base metals and machinery.
More than 50 people, most of them foreigners, have been killed in clashes between al-Qaeda-linked militants and Pakistani tribesmen on Friday, Pakistan’s interior minister said. Fighting in the South Waziristan tribal region broke out earlier this month between foreign fighters, most of them believed to be Uzbeks, and Pashtun tribesmen.
Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa remained silent on the future of the national lottery on Friday afternoon — with only a day left before Uthingo’s licence expires. Uthingo is the current lottery operator. Save to say the minister would announce his decision before midnight on Saturday, officials of his department still could not indicate when an announcement would be made.
Greece on Friday suspended all team sport matches for two weeks after a fan died in a pitched battle outside Athens, an incident casting doubt on measures taken against the violence that has plagued sport in the country for decades. The 25-year-old fan was killed in an arranged clash between about 300 hooligans of Greek arch-rivals Olympiakos Pireaus and Panathinaikos Athens.
Koeberg power station’s unit two will probably be shut down over the weekend after an incident when a crane came into contact with a line connecting the unit to the transmission system. Eskom initiated a controlled shutdown of the unit after the incident on Thursday and a team was still assessing the damage, the utility said on Friday.
Literary lion Ngugi wa Thiong’o tells Niren Tolsi about the hurdles facing Africa and African writers and how they can be surmounted.