The death of veteran journalist Barry Streek had robbed news writing in South Africa of one of its most committed exponents, colleagues said in tribute on Friday. A long-time committee member and former vice-chairperson of the Cape Town Press Club, Streek died earlier in the day after a long struggle with cancer. He was 58.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said in a statement on Friday that the chief magistrate of Thabazimbi had found platinum miner Northam Platinum guilty of negligence. "This came at the conclusion of an inquest looking into the death of nine mineworkers at the mine," NUM said.
An appeal to uphold sexual harassment findings against former ambassador Norman Mashabane will probably only be heard in September, the Public Servants’ Association of South Africa (PSA) said on Friday. Mashabane was to have appeared in the Pretoria High Court on Friday, said the PSA’s Johan Blommestein.
Prison authorities asked the Law Society of the Northern Province on Friday to help some awaiting-trail prisoners and those eligible for parole to be released in an attempt to ease overcrowding in prisons. Speaking at a conference of the society, Johan Wilkens, acting regional head of corrections in Gauteng, said prisons in the province were 171% full.
Soweto pupils planned a march to the Gauteng premier’s office in Johannesburg on Friday afternoon in protest against a lack of school buses, the Congress of South African students (Cosas) said. ”Since this term began, many students have been left stranded due to the lack of transport and the Department of Education is to blame,” Cosas provincial chairperson Percy Ntsolo said.
Google’s second-quarter profit seems likely to erase any lingering doubts about which internet company rules the web. While rivals eBay and Yahoo! merely matched analysts’ earnings expectations, Google on Thursday soared well beyond Wall Street’s financial hurdle — just like the online search engine leader has done in all but one quarter since it went public nearly two years ago.
Naspers division Media24 has merged its digital arm with MWeb Studios, the division responsible for the development of web-based services, to create the continent’s biggest online business, <i>24.com</i>, which aims to dominate the digital arena in Africa by offering visitors the best online content and services.
A barrage of Hezbollah rockets fired from Lebanon slammed into the northern Israeli city of Haifa on Friday, wounding at least 19 people, medics said. Rockets also hit several other northern towns. One missile hit an apartment building in Haifa. Sirens sounded shortly before the rockets struck.
Hundreds of people were dead or missing in North Korea after floods and landslides caused by heavy rains destroyed tens of thousands of houses and buildings, official media said on Friday. The rains, brought by a powerful typhoon which lashed the Korean peninsula on July 10, also damaged infrastructure and wrecked vast swathes of farmland.
Former Liberian president Charles Taylor was expected to make his first appearance in a Hague courtroom on Friday for a hearing aimed at paving the way for his war-crimes trial. The former warlord faces 11 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.