Skipper Mahela Jayawardene and veteran Sanath Jayasuriya hit aggressive half-centuries to push Sri Lanka closer to a remarkable victory in the second Test against South Africa in Colombo on Monday. Jayasuriya smashed 73 off 74 balls and Jayawardene was unbeaten on 77 as Sri Lanka ended a tense fourth day’s play on 262-5.
The first koala to be born in Africa has finally emerged from his mother’s pouch, the National Zoological Gardens in Pretoria said on Monday. Conservation staff at the zoo have reported that the young joey, as young koalas are known, is regularly seen with its head out of mother Renée’s pouch.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has called off its week-long strike over wages at Kumba Resources after a weekend of consultations, it said on Monday. The NUM downed tools on Sunday and Solidarity on Monday in demand of a 9% wage increase for higher earners and 10,5% for lower earners.
A mere 2 647 taxi operators of more than 135 000 in the country have registered with the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF), the Department of Labour said on Monday. Said departmental spokesperson Kgomotso Sebetso: ”It’s not fair that the taxi owners don’t want to comply with the law.”
Cash-in-transit heist gangs hit at least six vans on Monday — three of them from Fidelity Cash Management Services and three from Coin Security. Although shots — including assault-rifle fire — went off in all but one of the attacks, only one security guard was wounded. Four robbers were arrested.
Lebanon’s prime minister, choking back tears, demanded a "quick and decisive ceasefire" on Monday after an Israeli air raid that he at first said killed more than 40 civilians sheltering from fighting in a southern village. Later, though, he said that only one person had been killed. Air raids elsewhere killed at least 24 Lebanese.
The BMW Sauber Formula One team on Monday announced they had released former world champion Canadian Jacques Villeneuve from his contract. Villeneuve did not take part in Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix after informing the team that he had not fully recovered from an accident in Germany the previous weekend.
The Asbestos Relief Trust, set up to compensate asbestosis claimants, paid out more than R91-million in 1 378 claims in the past two years. Trust chairperson John Doidge said in his report on Monday: ”The manager’s report shows that to date we have been able to compensate 1 378 people suffering with an asbestos related disease.
A previously unknown group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of a German contractor last week in Nigeria and demanded the release of two jailed leaders as a condition for his freedom. The group also demanded that the hostage’s employer, construction firm Bilfinger and Berger, provide more infrastructure and jobs to the communities where they work.
Flash floods triggered by torrential rains have killed at least 120 people in Pakistan’s North West Frontier province, and forced hundreds of thousands out of their homes in neighbouring India, officials said on Monday. In the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, 100 people have died in four days of torrential monsoon rains.