Idols winner Karin Kortje’s lover Cheslyn Williams made a brief appearance in the Bellville Magistrate’s Court on Monday charged with murdering Durbanville guest-house owner Renate Kellerman. The magistrate postponed the case to July 24 to allow investigators to establish whether Williams has a criminal record.
During an official check to certify that Namibia remained polio-free a decade after it declared it had conquered the disease, officials made a surprising find: a 39-year-old man stricken with the virus. On Tuesday, Namibia launches a three-day nationwide immunisation drive aiming to vaccinate the entire population.
A new campaign against farm attacks is to get under way with a protest march in North West on Friday, the trade union Solidarity said. ”We want to make people more emotional over this issue,” Solidarity spokesperson Jaco Kleynhans told the media. He said vigils and other forms of protest are being planned in the longer term.
Israeli strikes killed 41 people across Lebanon on Monday, including 10 civilians hit on a southern bridge, on the sixth day of a bombardment that has wreaked the heaviest destruction in Lebanon for over 20 years. Rescuers also pulled nine bodies from the wreckage of a building in the southern city of Tyre that was bombed on Sunday.
Trade union Solidarity announced on Monday that it will commence strike action at petrochemicals group Sasol on Tuesday morning at 6am. "This follows after Solidarity held a mass meeting with members. During this meeting it transpired that the trade union’s members were unhappy with a number of issues, including the company’s attitude towards its workers," Solidarity said.
The British government moved on Monday to ban for the first time two Islamist militant groups based in Britain under new laws prohibiting the glorification of terrorism, officials said. Home Secretary John Reid named the outlawed groups as al-Ghurabaa and the Saved Sect, Home Office officials said.
Marine salvors were attempting to remove the remaining 20 tons of heavy fuel oil from the stranded Safmarine Agulhas after a crack on the portside of the vessel started leaking diesel oil on Monday afternoon. Environmental affairs representative Nazeera Hargey said officials were unsure about the quantity of oil leaking from the crack but were dealing with the matter.
Torrential rains have killed at least 170 people across south China since the weekend, flooding cities, sweeping away houses and cutting off utilities as well as rail and road links, state media reported on Monday. The rains were triggered by tropical storm Bilis, which killed dozens in the Philippines and Taiwan before hitting China on Friday.
Space shuttle Discovery made a smooth landing in Florida on Monday, completing a 13-day mission considered critical for the United States space programme’s recovery from the 2003 Columbia disaster. The orbiter landed on schedule under overcast skies at the Kennedy Space Centre at 1.14pm GMT.
Several dozen submissions on Johannesburg International airport’s name change to OR Tambo International airport have been received, the ministry of arts and culture said on Monday. A ministry spokesperson said the submissions have been a "mixed bag", with some for and some against the name change.