The South African Post Office and the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) signed a wage agreement on Friday ranging from a 5% increase for the highest paid workers to 9% for the lowest-paid workers. According to the agreement, other items agreed on include a R50 increase in the monthly housing subsidy and an extension on family responsibility leave for bereavement or illness.
Another 21 people died from lightning and house collapses in northern India, an official said on Saturday, taking the nationwide death toll to at least 328 since the monsoon season began two months ago. The new casualties were reported in northern Uttar Pradesh state, one of the worst hit by the heavy rains.
An Odendaalsrus man who held his girlfriend and two-year-old boy hostage in a house in Kutlwanong was overpowered by police early on Saturday morning, Free State police said. ”This morning at about 6am members of the task force from Pretoria went into the house and managed to arrest the suspect,” Superintendent William Mokoena said.
They swallow everything that comes their way and exercise the world’s finest minds, but the portrayal of black holes as awe-inspiring celestial menaces may be woefully inaccurate, a team of scientists claim. Indeed, they might not exist at all. According to the researchers, the traditional astronomers’ view of the universe should be replaced.
Sudanese government forces and allied militias attacked bases of a new rebel alliance in Darfur despite a ceasefire in the violent west, officials and rebels said on Saturday. An unpopular African Union-mediated peace deal was signed in May by only one of three rebel negotiating factions.
A little over a year ago, Absa unclipped its sock-suspenders and stepped gingerly into the synthetic amniotic goo of the rebirthing pool. A branding guru stood nearby, revelling in his essences by smelling his armpits, while a swathe of Johannesburg copywriters hovered anxiously behind him, holding bundles of swaddling clothes and invoices.
Former Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Parreira said on Friday he is close to reaching an agreement to manage 2010 World Cup hosts South Africa, a deal that would mark his return to the continent after nearly 40 years. Parreira, who resigned from Brazil last week, met with officials from the South African Football Association (Safa) in Rio de Janeiro on Friday.
Battering one another with a dead eel has been a favoured old tradition in one British town for decades, but a new ban has curtailed the fishy fun and sparked local anger, British newspapers reported on Saturday. "Conger cuddling" has been staged annually in Lyme Regis on the southern English coast for 32 years to raise money for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution charity.
Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy was officially presented on Friday as a Real Madrid player following his arrival from Manchester United, saying the move meant he had fulfilled a dream. Van Nistelrooy (30) signed a three-year contract after passing a medical earlier on Friday and was then presented to the media at the Spanish club’s Bernabeu stadium.
The Falcons scored six tries to one to run out comfortable 36-8 winners in their Absa Currie Cup clash with the Pumas in Witbank on Friday night. The Falcons were never really in trouble, although they did go behind to an 18th minute Pieter Benade penalty.