Roger Federer performed one of the most clinical demolition jobs ever witnessed on centre court as he crushed Swedish veteran Jonas Bjorkman to move within one match of a fourth Wimbledon title. The Swiss needed just one hour and 17 minutes to complete a 6-2, 6-0, 6-2 victory with a flawless, almost surgical, display of precision tennis.
Five Palestinians were killed on Friday as Israel pressed on with its bloody offensive in Gaza, a day after reoccupying land in the deadliest 24 hours in the Palestinian territories for four years. Twenty-seven Palestinians and one Israeli soldier have been killed since the offensive began late on Wednesday.
The embassy of Zimbabwe in South Africa on Friday criticised the media for what it believes are unsubstantiated allegations that former Zimbabwean soldiers are involved in crime. ”In an attempt to seek clarification on the veracity of these claims, the relevant authorities … have expressed shock … at these allegations, which have ho basis in fact,” ambassador Simon Moyo said.
After nearly two decades of ridicule, a Vietnamese father has agreed to change his son’s name from ”Fined Six Thousand and Five Hundred” — the amount he was forced to pay in local currency for ignoring Vietnam’s two-child policy. Angry he was being fined, Mai Xuan Can in 1987 named his son after the amount he was forced to pay.
Militiamen linked to Somalia’s sharia courts faced off with a group vowing to fight Mogadishu’s new Islamist rulers on Friday as residents feared another flare-up in fighting after a month of relative peace. And in another indication of the emerging hard-line nature of the Islamists, a local sheikh was quoted in local media as saying anyone who does not practise daily prayers should die.
Two municipal trade unions indicated this week that they have accepted a three-year wage deal put forward by the South African Local Government Bargaining Council. The South African Municipal Workers’ Union announced on Friday that it would accept the deal, while the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union accepted it earlier this week.
South Africa’s Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana said on Thursday at the 19th Annual Labour Law Conference in Sandton that the recent importing of skills by Sasol indicated that it was not just job creation that was a fundamental problem in South Africa, but also a shortage of skills.
Britain says the crisis in former colony Zimbabwe is a result of bad policy and not a bilateral dispute between the two nations as President Robert Mugabe claims, it was reported on Friday. British Embassy in Harare spokesperson Gillian Dare told the Herald newspaper that there was no need for mediation between Zimbabwe and Britain because Zimbabwe suffers from a purely internal crisis.
Despite the provocations of its title, Lewis Nkosi’s new novel, <i>Mandela’s Ego</i>, says little about Mandela himself, writes David Attwell
Josh Cunningham, the guitarist from the Australian folk/blues band The Waifs, was recently in South Africa. Lloyd Gedye caught up with him to chat about the band’s future plans.