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All-rounder Justin Kemp and batsman Herschelle Gibbs suffered injury scares during training on the eve of South Africa’s World Cup warm-up match against Ireland on Monday. Kemp was hit on the left big toe by fast bowler Charl Langeveldt while he batted in the nets on Sunday. Gibbs injured a finger during a fielding drill.
When Albert ”Chinky” Facchiano was born in 1910, Al Capone was just another young thug in short trousers. Almost a century later, Scarface and the other legendary gangsters of his ilk are long gone — dead of old age, whacked in mob hits or simply vanished into witness protection programmes.
The number of Gauteng schoolgirls who fell pregnant in 2006 was double that of the previous year, the Star newspaper reported on Monday. The newspaper said 2Â 336 schoolgirls were pregnant last year — up from 2004 when 1Â 373, and 2005 when 1Â 169 schoolgirls were reported pregnant.
Trade between Zimbabwe and China is expected to surge to half a billion US dollars by next year, Beijing’s ambassador to Harare was reported as saying on Monday. The Asian giant has already emerged as the largest single importer of Zimbabwe’s key export crop, tobacco.
International concerns about China’s growing military power and a spiralling global arms race intensified on Sunday when Beijing announced its biggest defence budget increase for more than 10 years. Weeks after China stunned the world by test-firing its first anti-satellite missile, the government said it will increase spending by 17,8% this year.
A major spice manufacturer on Sunday said it was taking allegations of product contamination seriously but that the presence of an illegal banned chemical was ”highly unlikely”. ”We are very surprised at the results of this test. Unilever has not had a single incident of Sudan contamination from March 2005 to date,” said spokesperson Christine Broadhurst.
British special forces have flown to the remote area of Ethiopia where five Britons were kidnapped, defence sources said on Sunday. An SAS troop trained in hostage rescue is on standby in Britain and two soldiers from the elite unit, described as being in a "liaison" role, are already on the ground.
The social security and retirement reform discussion paper has given an outline of what South Africans can expect from the social security system, which should be be introduced in 2010. The contributions will be compulsory and will be collected by the South African Revenue Service from the employer.
Former Malawian president Bakili Muluzi dominated local media headlines over the past three weeks after returning from the United Kingdom, where he went for a medical check-up. But this time it is not his health but his desire to run again as president in 2009 elections that has attracted the media’s attention.
"Charity is a very Victorian notion — the further away people are, the more charitable we feel towards them," says Thompson with not a little asperity. "By my thirties I was thoroughly disenchanted by celebrity charity stuff — I just can’t bear it!" she says with a groan. Loathing the lunches-‘n-launches celebrity circuit, Thompson was looking for a way to make a more meaningful contribution.