A new Dutch Cabinet under Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende enjoying only minority support in Parliament prepared for office on Thursday to take the country to early elections in November. The new Cabinet comprises all but two of the members of Balkenende’s last administration that resigned last week.
The plastics on Thursday finally came off the controversial statue of the man said to have inspired the naming of the metropole of Tshwane. The 6,2m bronzed figure of Chief Tshwane was unveiled in a low-key ceremony outside the Pretoria city hall, months after it was erected and put under wraps.
The Springboks are nowhere near to being down and out, despite an unsatisfactory start to the international season that saw them beat Scotland 2-0, lose to France and relinquish their number two world ranking. Springbok coach Jake White remains optimistic that his squad will perform well, against expectation, in their overseas leg of the Tri-Nations competition.
A videotaped message from the grave by one of the London suicide bombers was broadcast on British television on Thursday as the country braced for the painful first anniversary of the July 7 attacks. Shehzad Tanweer’s statement came as Britain prepared to remember the victims of the bombings, an atrocity that woke the nation.
Aids-ravaged Zimbabwe is hoping to double the number of people on antiretrovirals (ARV) in order to reach 70Â 000 sufferers by the end of 2006, a top official said on Thursday. "We are certainly going to increase the number of people on ARVs," said Raymond Yekeye, operations manager of the National Aids Council.
Some of the accused in the multimillion-dollar heist at Johannesburg International airport claim they were forced to admit they were involved in the crime, the Kempton Park regional court heard on Thursday. The court heard that Nazir Ismail had said earlier in the week his statement was not made voluntarily but under duress, and that he did not intend testifying for the state.
Enron founder Kenneth Lay, who was convicted of helping perpetuate one of the most sprawling business frauds in United States history, died on Wednesday in Aspen, Colorado. He was 64. Lay died of a heart attack, his pastor in Houston said. ”Apparently, his heart simply gave out,” said Pastor Steve Wende of Houston’s First United Methodist Church.
The Airports Company South Africa on Thursday introduced a new convenient ”pick-up-and-go” parking area at the Johannesburg International airport. ”This facility will be free for the first five minutes to people picking up passengers from the international arrivals terminal as of tomorrow [Friday],” said the airport’s landside manager, Kesavan Naicker.
Solfa Hamed’s 11 children are hungry and she is ready to fight anyone standing between her and the aid packages for the growing number of needy Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. ”I will not leave without my bag. My 11 children are waiting at home for something to eat and my pantry is empty,” shouts the 47-year-old.
An elderly South African woman has laid claim to be the world’s oldest person — 132 years — and an organisation representing the old is adamant the accomplishment be officially recognised, a report said Thursday. Moloko Temo of Bochum in the country’s northern Limpopo province was reportedly born on July 4 1874.