World soccer governing body Fifa said on Thursday they have opened a disciplinary inquiry into the behaviour of Italy World Cup winning defender Marco Materazzi. In a statement, Fifa said: ”The decision was taken following claims made by French player Zinedine Zidane, who attacked Materazzi with a headbutt during the final of the Fifa World Cup in Berlin on July 9.”
Three more men joined the alleged killer of a National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) senior official in the Carletonville Magistrate’s Court on Thursday, West Rand police said. Spokesperson Inspector Solomon Sibiya said all four men had their case postponed to next Wednesday for a formal bail application.
The print media are treating the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) in a hostile manner, chief executive of the SABC Dali Mpofu said on Thursday. ”There is this hostility that I don’t understand. The SABC either gets no coverage, hostility or cartoons. Why, I don’t understand,” he told the Johannesburg Press Club.
A police dog that was left in a pickup truck with the engine running apparently knocked the vehicle into gear and ran down a woman who was walking to her mailbox. Mary F Stone (41) was expected to remain hospitalised with a fractured pelvis and tailbone until at least Friday, said her husband, Paul Stone.
Indian police have detained about 350 people in connection with the deadly Mumbai train bombings, as a top official said on Thursday that investigators believe they ”should have something substantial soon”. A man claiming to represent al-Qaeda reportedly claimed on Thursday that the terror network has set up a wing in Kashmir.
A Limpopo chief, Fhulumani Kutama, was elected unopposed on Thursday as chairperson of the National House of Traditional Leaders. He replaces Mpiyezintombi Mzimela, who left the post after the dissolution of the house of traditional leaders in his home province of KwaZulu-Natal.
Much work must still be done to ensure optimal implementation of HIV and Aids policy in both primary and high schools, a conference heard on Thursday. Although the majority of schools have guidelines on the Department of Education’s HIV and Aids policy, a wide gap still exists between policy and implementation.
Israel struck Beirut airport and blockaded Lebanese ports on Thursday, intensifying reprisals that have killed 53 civilians since Lebanese Hezbollah fighters seized two Israeli soldiers and killed eight a day earlier. Hezbollah retaliated for Israeli ”massacres” by firing at least 70 rockets at Nahariya in northern Israel. A civilian was killed and at least 42 were wounded, Israeli medics said.
Whether or not there was enough water for the Roodefontein development should not have held up his department’s decision on its approval, former Western Cape environment provincial minister David Malatsi said on Thursday. He was testifying in the Bellville Regional Court, where he and former premier Peter Marais face corruption charges.
Deputy Minister of Defence Mluleki George will attend the 90th commemoration of the Battle of Delville Wood in France on Sunday, the Ministry of Defence said on Thursday. During the ceremony — which commemorates the South Africans who perished in World War I — a new South African coat of arms will be unveiled at the South African memorial on the site.