At least four Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) election officials have been arrested in Kinshasa for electoral fraud, legal sources said on Friday, as 15 candidates complained of ”massive irregularities” in the poll. The suspects are accused of trying to falsify documents recording results from the presidential election held 12 days ago.
David Beckham was left out of new England coach Steve McClaren’s first England squad on Friday, raising speculation that his international career could be over. Beckham, who quit as captain after England’s quarterfinal exit from the World Cup in July, did not feature in McClaren’s list of 25 for next Wednesday’s home friendly against Greece.
An Eastern Cape pastor, charged with having raped his adoptive daughter, kept videotapes showing the alleged victim naked in a bath, The Herald Online reported on Friday. His other two daughters told the Port Elizabeth High Court on Thursday they discovered the tapes in the pastor’s study.
The University of Pretoria’s management and the Pan Africanist Movement of Azania refused to budge from their respective positions on Friday. The student body said they would continue with their protest, while management said it would not reopen the campus unless violent protests came to end.
Trade prospects in South Africa remained favourable for the next six months, the South African Chamber of Business (Sacob) and banking group Absa said on Friday. Last month, the trade-expectations index — a measure of trade-condition prospects for the next six months — rose marginally by one index point to 68, according to the Trade Activity Index.
A Thabong man shot dead a 14-year-old plaintiff in a case against him outside the Welkom Magistrate’s Court on Friday, Free State police said. The man then shot and wounded himself, Captain Rosa Benade said. The man allegedly went to the state prosecutor and said he wanted to plead guilty on a charge of assaulting the teenager.
Somalia’s political stand-off may erupt into a region-wide conflict involving al-Qaeda unless its fragile government can bring Islamists into its ranks, a think-tank said on Friday. Foreign states, particularly Ethiopia and Eritrea, must stop supporting the rival factions or risk inflaming the situation, the International Crisis Group said in a report.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Friday called on its members to boycott all Shoprite Checkers stores. ”Cosatu is calling on its members not to buy from Shoprite until the strike is resolved,” Cosatu’s regional chairperson Sdumo Dlamini told a 2Â 000-strong crowd of protesters in Durban.
About 20 women whose loved ones died violent deaths demonstrated outside Parliament for tighter gun controls Friday in one of the world’s most crime-ridden countries. Shaheema Langeveldt said she still grieved over the murder of her 13-year-old son, shot to death eight years ago as he tried to give evidence to police about another murder.
Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon on Friday accused the African National Congress of deliberate sabotage of the parliamentary process through the passage of the new anti-mercenary Bill, resulting in President Thabo Mbeki’s Africa policy being undermined.