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.
Diego Maradona had some time on his hands on Tuesday, until Italian tax police near Naples took two Rolex watches the Argentine soccer legend was wearing, to chip away at a â,¬30-million (,5-million) unpaid income tax bill. ”We were surprised he was wearing them because he knows that when he comes to Italy he risks losing something,” said tax policeman Geremia Guercia.
Australian researchers have launched a search for the country’s ugliest sheep — no matter how wrinkled, lumpy, bald or just plain funny looking — to try to identify genes that produce high quality wool. ”When something goes really wrong with the genes, it is the most powerful indicator about where to look to identify the genes that can — paradoxically — make things go really right,” said Paul Hynd.
The head of the Medical Research Council (MRC), Professor Anthony MBewu, on Wednesday dismissed as incorrect a set of minutes recording that he agreed to be a medical investigator in Matthias Rath’s South African vitamin campaign. The minutes, compiled by Rath aides, are part of a set of documents recording contact between the controversial German and the MRC in 2004.
Zimbabwe will not back down on proposed changes to its mining laws which will give the state a majority stake in foreign-owned firms. "There is no going back on the 51% mining ownership structure policy structure for the government and 49% for outsiders," said Junior Mines Minister Tinos Rusere.
Police on Thursday arrested a suspected Taliban militant entering a provincial capital in restive southern Afghanistan with explosives loaded on a donkey, officials said. "Police had reports that some explosives were being brought into the city on a donkey," the government spokesperson in troubled Zabul, Gulab Shah Alikhail, told Agence France-Presse.
The Arab League expressed anxiety on Thursday over the ongoing violence in Somalia and urged the warring sides to immediately end hostilities, saying it was prepared to help restore calm in the country. "The Arab League expresses deep anxiety and regret over the deaths and injuries of a number of Somali citizens," the pan-Arab body said.
On May 23 1960, when Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion announced to the Knesset that ”Adolf Eichmann, one of the greatest Nazi war criminals, is in Israeli custody”, United States and West German intelligence services reacted to the stunning news not with joy but alarm.