Zimbabwean churches trying to address the worsening political and economic crises are being thrust into the unfamiliar role of political activism, and are perceived as split along party lines. Church groups perceived to support President Robert Mugabe and those who favour a faction of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change have been attacking each other.
The JSE was roaring ahead in noon trade on Thursday, benefiting from the three perks of stronger world markets, higher commodity prices and buying related to the futures close-out, which had just got underway, dealers said. Trade was brisk and about R5-billion worth of shares had already changed hands.
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Substitute Oliver Neuville scored a stoppage-time winner as host nation Germany moved to the brink of qualifying for the last 16 of the World Cup with a 1-0 win over Poland on Wednesday. Germany had spurned countless chances, with their Polish-born strikers Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski the main guilty parties.
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Thai police were on Thursday hunting for a gunman who shot dead two noisy World Cup fans at point-blank range after they ignored his request to be quiet, a police official said. The gunman was sitting next to 10 Thai football fans who watched Monday’s Italy-Ghana match on TV at a restaurant in the popular seaside resort of Pattaya, 70km south-east of Bangkok.
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More than 300 people were rounded up by police in Dortmund overnight after German hooligans sparked fighting before the World Cup match between Germany and Poland. The violence signalled the end of five trouble-free days at the World Cup.
All Blacks fans saw double on Thursday as one team continued its preparation for the second Test against Ireland on Saturday and another jetted off to Buenos Aires for next week’s one-off Test against Argentina. The team for Saturday’s Auckland Test saw the Argentina side off in true All Blacks fashion with a haka outside their Auckland hotel.
About -billion in relief meant for victims of Hurricane Katrina was lost to fraud, with bogus claimants spending the money on Hawaiian holidays, football tickets, diamond jewellery and Girls Gone Wild porn videos, the US Congress was told on Wednesday.
Strike action begun two weeks ago by transport workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has paralysed economic activity at the country’s leading port. The strike, in the south-western port of Matadi, ”affects the whole national network” of the National Transport Office, said Etienne Ntadila, staff representative at the public company.
A diminutive grandmother donned a cap and gown on Wednesday and fulfilled a dream she had abandoned 80 years earlier — she got her high school diploma. ”I felt like I had missed something,” Josephine Belasco said when asked what inspired her to complete the schooling she began at Galileo High School when it opened in 1924.
Separatist Islamic militants in southern Thailand bombed more than 40 police and government targets on Thursday, killing at least two people and wounding 21. The attacks, using crudely made, small and remote-controlled devices, shattered the relative calm of recent days as mainly Buddhist Thailand united to celebrate King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s 60-year reign.