A 24-year-old man tried to sell his soul on China’s most popular auction website and managed to get 58 bids before operators pulled his ad, he told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Wednesday. "It was just an impulse," the seller, who requested anonymity, said from Shanghai. The man posted the announcement on Taobao last week, asking a starting price of 10 yuan ($1,23).
Former deputy president Jacob Zuma was playing with fire when he had unprotected sex with an HIV-positive woman, says the CEO of loveLife, South Africa’s national HIV-prevention programme for youth. Zuma has been accused of raping an HIV-positive woman and is currently on trial in the Johannesburg High Court.
Global truck giant AB Volvo has acquired a 13% stake in truck manufacturer Nissan Diesel Japan but the transaction will leave the South African operations unchanged, the Swedish firm said in a statement on Wednesday. Following the conclusion of the deal, AB Volvo has become Nissan Diesel’s single largest shareholder with Nissan Motor retaining a 6% share.
The South African wine industry marked a milestone on Wednesday with the launch of Women in Wine, the country’s first wine producing company that is owned, controlled and managed by women, during the second day of Cape Wine 2006, the industry’s bi-annual international trade exhibition.
Johannesburg residents were left high and dry for about 24 hours this week, but the city’s water agency says the infrastructure is in "fairly good" shape. On April 1 pressure from a burst water pipe at the corner of Mooi and Anderson Streets in central Johannesburg caused the road to crack open and sent water gushing into the air.
At least 36 people were drowned when their boat capsized during a heavy storm on Lake Victoria, Tanzanian officials said on Wednesday. Ignas Mbinga, the regional police commander for western Tanzania, said only nine people survived the accident, which occurred when heavy winds and waves swamped and caused the fishing boat to keel over.
Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein launched into a new tirade against his trial on Wednesday and lambasted the interior ministry as the tumultuous process resumed after a three week break. The only defendant in the court, Saddam Hussein was dressed in a crisp black suit and appeared composed as judge Rauf Abdel Rahman reopened his trial on crimes against humanity at the high-security Baghdad courthouse.
The JSE roared to another record high on Wednesday morning, led by resources heavyweights Anglo American and BHP Billiton, which continued to gain ground in London. Dealers expressed surprise at the JSE’s rally, given the rand’s continued strength and the fact that commodity prices had eased from their overnight highs.
An official probe into the helicopter crash that killed former south Sudanese leader John Garang last year concluded the pilot was to blame, a member of the investigation panel said on Wednesday. Siraj al-Din Hamid told reporters in Khartoum that the final report was submitted to Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir on Tuesday night.
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Jacob Zuma has repeated that he believed the woman who accused him of rape wanted to have sexual intercourse with him. He told the Johannesburg High Court on Wednesday that the woman followed him to his bedroom and then sat on his bed, which indicated to him her intentions were to have intercourse.