The Western Cape department of local government office in Cape Town had its water and electricity cut off on Thursday over an unpaid bill of almost R750Â 000. City of Cape Town workers cut off the water to the department’s city centre building at 1.12pm and the electricity shortly after that.
Two United States astronomers have discovered huge quantities of carbon gas mixed with a cloud of dust surrounding a young, yellow star that could resemble our own solar system at its inception, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) said.
Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon has scoffed at suggestions that the party’s newly-elected Tafelsig ward councillor Sheval Arendse be suspended. Briefing the media at Parliament after Wednesday’s by-election, Leon said he was unaware of any charges against Arendse.
Public clinics and hospitals in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, are running out of desperately needed drugs to treat tuberculosis as a worsening hard-currency shortage hits state health facilities, it was reported on Thursday. Overcrowding and poor hygiene have seen increasing cases of TB surfacing in Harare.
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A smiling Wayne Rooney resumed training at England’s base camp in southern Germany on Thursday, giving the side a huge boost ahead of their World Cup campaign. The 20-year-old striker was put through his paces with his teammates and showed no ill effects in his first run-out since jetting being given the green light to play in the World Cup.
Diamond giant De Beers on Thursday unveiled plans to mine diamonds off South Africa’s West Coast, saying output could touch 240 000 carats annually once the programme was up and running next year. De Beers said that it was equipping a ship with an underwater crawling mining device.
Al-Qaeda’s chief in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been killed in an air strike, United States and Iraqi officials announced on Thursday, hailing a major blow against the network’s bid to destabilise the country. The US military said al-Zarqawi was killed in an air strike on a safe house north of Baghdad where he was holding a meeting with fellow militants.
The JSE was deep in negative territory at noon on Thursday as weakness on world markets, lower commodity prices and interest-rate fears continued to weigh. Basket selling by futures players amplified the bourse’s losses. By 11.59am the all-share and all-share industrial indices slid 3,22% and 3,42% respectively.
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Germany captain Michael Ballack has lost his battle to be fit for Friday’s World Cup opener against Costa Rica, manager Jurgen Klinsmann said on Thursday. Ballack was forced to pull out of Wednesday’s training with his calf injury still troubling him and Klinsmann said his star midfielder would not be available in Munich.
Over 15 000 members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in the civil-engineering component of the construction sector began their wage negotiations with the South African Federation of Civil Engineering Contractors, NUM said on Thursday.