Somalia’s weak, United Nations-backed transitional government will meet its Islamic rivals this week in Sudan in an effort to ease tensions after the Islamists took over of much of the country’s south, an Arab League official said. The talks will open with a ceremony on Friday.
When is a fraud not a fraud? When it happens virtually. Or that’s what players of Eve Online, a hugely popular online game, discovered when one of their world’s banks turned out to be a scam. Inside Eve, one player set up what was called the Eve Intergalactic Bank, offering to let players store their virtual cash in the game currency known as the Inter Stellar Kredit, or ISK.
Pitso Mosimane on Wednesday sent midfielder Macbeth Sibaya ”home to Natal” following the death of his father on Monday — and the Bafana Bafana coach may, in the process, have lost his Russian-based midfielder for the African Nations Cup qualifying game against the Congo at FNB Stadium on Saturday.
The infrastructure for the refining and transporting of petroleum products has to be expanded in order to ensure that the demand can be satisfied, the South African Petroleum Industry Association said in its latest annual report. It said that the demand for petroleum products in South Africa has grown by 12% in the past four years.
Rain ended England’s run of seven straight limited-overs defeats as the first one-day international against Pakistan ended in a no-result at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff on Wednesday. Pakistan, chasing a revised target of 159 in 32 overs after a rain break, were 46 for one off seven overs when a second downpour ended the match.
Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal both took confident first steps towards an eventual third straight grand-slam final showdown in the first round of the United States Open on Wednesday. Top seed Federer of Switzerland needed just one hour and 40 minutes to dispatch Wang Yeu-Tzuoo of Taiwan 6-4, 6-1, 6-0.
South Africa’s dams are 92% full, according to the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry’s records. The department reports on its website that the dams were only 65% full this time last year. This week, dam levels in the provinces ranged from overflowing in the Northern Cape to 72% full in Limpopo.
Australian telecoms giant Telstra said on Thursday it had paid $254-million for a majority stake in Chinese real-estate and home furnishing website SouFun Holdings. Telstra chairperson Sol Trujillo said the site was a market leader in China and would be managed by Sensis, which runs Telstra’s online directories such as the yellow and white pages.
Major powers will begin discussing an Iran sanctions resolution at a meeting in Europe next week if Tehran continues to defy a United Nations Security Council demand to halt uranium enrichment, the United States State Department said on Wednesday. But Iranian President Mohammad Ahmadinejad remained unmoved, telling state media: ”Sanctions cannot discourage people from making progress.”
Eighty-four African would-be immigrants drowned off Mauritania last Saturday when their boats sank attempting to reach Spain’s Canary Islands, Spanish news reports said on Wednesday. Mauritanian fishermen and rescuers retrieved the bodies from the sea and beaches near the capital Nouakchott, according to the radio station Cadena Ser.