United Nations officials travelled to Mogadishu on Monday for their first talks with Somali Islamists, who wrested control of the Somali capital last month. The UN team flew into Mogadishu from Kenya under heavy security and inspected several areas of city, which has been under Islamist control since June 5 when they routed the warlords after four months of bloody clashes.
The White House on Monday dismissed North Korea’s threat of a nuclear strike in the event of United States attack as ”deeply hypothetical” and urged Pyongyang to rejoin nuclear negotiations. North Korea vowed on Monday to counter any strike by the US with its ”mighty nuclear deterrent”, accusing Washington of raising tension on the Korean peninsula.
![]()
Delaying Jacob Zuma’s corruption trial is ”not fair,” Schabir Shaik said on Monday. Shaik, the man described by Judge Hilary Squires last July as having had a ”generally corrupt relationship” with Zuma, said: ”I read it in the weekend papers. I don’t think it’s fair, but it really is up to Zuma and his team to make that call.”
![]()
Germany midfielder Torsten Frings has been suspended for Tuesday’s World Cup semifinal against Italy, world soccer governing body Fifa said on Monday. Frings was barred after the Fifa disciplinary committee viewed TV pictures, which show him hitting an Argentinian player in the face.
Australian Robbie McEwen won a thrilling bunch sprint to claim the second stage of the Tour de France here Monday over 228,5km of racing between Obernai and Esch-sur-Alzette. Norway’s Thor Hushovd, who came in third on the stage behind world champion Tom Boonen of Belgium, regained the leader’s yellow jersey from American George Hincapie, who drops to fourth overall.
A University of Cape Town academic has been temporarily suspended from his research duties and his laboratory closed after an international journal associated him with a herbal tonic touted as an HIV/Aids treatment. ”The University of Cape Town is aware of the report … We regard the allegations in the report in a very serious light,” said spokesperson Skye Grove on Monday.
The controversy surrounding South Africa’s biggest arms-acquisition deal has resurfaced. That prosecutors in Düsseldorf at the weekend confirmed a probe into allegations that a German ship-building consortium supplying four Corvettes to the South African navy, handed over bribes, proves rather embarrassing and comes at a bad time for the two nations.
John Terry is the red-hot favourite to take over the England captaincy, bookmakers said on Monday, after David Beckham quit the role in the wake of his side’s disappointing World Cup campaign. Terry (25 is so far ahead in the betting that some bookmakers have stopped taking bets on the England captaincy.
An independent investigation into the Jeppestown shooting is the only way to restore confidence in the police, the Democratic Alliance said on Monday. DA spokesperson on safety and security Roy Jankielsohn said an investigation should look at who ordered the police into a situation in which they were ”outgunned and outmanned” by armed criminals, and why.
Trading nations are now in a race to another last-ditch deadline 28 days away to overcome weekend failure in Doha Round negotiations to free up trade, but prospects for a deal and ending the ”crisis” for the World Trade Organisation (WTO) appear slim.