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Pubs stayed open well past their regular closing times on Monday and millions of people tuned in at home on a cold winter’s night as Australia started its World Cup-induced dose of insomnia with a victory. Nobody was complaining about the impending sleepless nights, particularly after Australia beat Japan 3-1.
In an internet message posted on Monday, al-Qaeda in Iraq has appointed a militant named Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Muhajer to succeed Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a United States air strike last week. His nationality was not given, but the word ”muhajer” means immigrant in Arabic.
Advocate Cezanne Visser will not take the stand in her sex-crimes trial, the Pretoria High Court heard on Monday. The state finally closed its case against Visser more than a year after the trial started. Her trial was postponed to August 15 for final argument. It is expected that judgement will take several days to complete.
<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/specialreport.aspx?area=soccer_world_cup_2006"><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/272488/icon_focuson_wc3.gif" align=left border=0></a>Furry, orange stick-on sideburns, a hat shaped like a piece of Gouda cheese, clogs … Dutch soccer fans huddled together in Lapamanzi Pub Africa in Johannesburg on Sunday as their national team took on Serbia and Montenegro for their first game in the 2006 World Cup.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) was asked on Monday to investigate the disappearance from South Africa of Pakistani national Khalid Mahmood Rashid. Rashid’s lawyer, Zehir Omar, has spoken with and subsequently sent a fax to the ICC office of prosecutors in The Hague asking it to investigate the ”enforced disappearance” of Rashid.
At least three people were killed and about 75 more injured on Monday when a train collided with a truck stuck on the line at a rail junction near the Israeli coastal city of Netanya. Four carriages, including the driver’s cabin, were forced off the rails by the impact of the collision.
A large number of striking security guards gathered at Beyers Naude Square in central Johannesburg on Monday to hear how wage talks with their employers were progressing. South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) members said employers have offered them an improved 9,25% wage increase.
Composer Gyorgy Ligeti, who fled Hungary after the 1956 revolution and gained fame for his opera <i>Le Grand Macabre</i> and his work on the soundtrack for Stanley Kubrick’s <i>2001: A Space Odyssey</i>, died on Monday. He was 83. Ligeti was celebrated as one of the world’s leading 20th-century musical pioneers.
Black farmers on Monday called for unity among all farmers to address challenges facing the sector. ”Without this unity we shall continue to fight about land from a political stance instead of solving the problem from a social and economic sustainability perspective,” the president of the National African Farmers’ Union of South Africa said.
The European Union gave the green light on Monday to deploy a 2 000-strong force to help secure the first multiparty elections in four decades in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) later this month. About 25-million Congolese voters will go to the polls on July 30.