Daksha, a shy Gujarati woman in her early 30s, wants a child — but not for herself. The baby is for the ”Britishers”, the couple seated in the lobby of the Indian fertility clinic. It is the first time that the British Asian couple, Ajay and Saroj Shah, from Leicester in central England, have met Daksha. The 31-year-old is ”loaning” her womb to them for 150 000 rupees (about £2 000).
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Telecommunications giant Telkom on Tuesday said it was waiting for two striking unions to approach it directly about the reissue of a retracted offer to overcome a deadlock in wage negotiations. ”We are waiting for the unions to talk to us directly. We are then going to tell them what has been decided and what can be done further to alleviate the situation.”
Australia beat the fading light and bowled South Africa out for 297 to win the second Castle Lager Test at Kingsmead by 112 runs on Tuesday. Despite a battling partnership of 72 runs by Mark Boucher and Nicky Boje, the South Africans were unable to cope with the wiles of legendary legspinner Shane Warne and were all out with less than seven overs left to play.
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If the rape allegation against Jacob Zuma was part of a political conspiracy against him, it was poorly planned, the state prosecutor told the Johannesburg High Court on Tuesday. ”If there was a political conspiracy, it wasn’t the most well-planned conspiracy,” said Herman Broodryk.
Like eager, pervasive predators, Mamelodi Sundowns and Orlando Pirates will be closing in on Premier Soccer League (PSL) log leaders and defending champions Kaizer Chiefs in intriguing league matches on Wednesday night. The success-hungry Sundowns are in a position to leap into a commanding lead.
The fate of the Southern Spears is expected to be decided at a president’s council meeting of the South African Rugby Union on Wednesday. At its meeting last Friday, the council poured cold water over the Spears’ chance of playing in the Super 14 competition next year. The move has been slammed by the African National Congress.
Cape Town cannot throw millions of rands of public money into starting the Green Point Stadium project without an assurance that it will be completed, mayor Helen Zille said on Tuesday. Zille was responding to an African National Congress appeal not to use the 2010 Soccer World Cup as a ”football to score cheap political points and to settle election battles”.
Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo has ordered the arrest of aides to former Liberian president Charles Taylor, fuelling Tuesday’s rumours that Liberia’s former head, now living in exile in Nigeria, has escaped from his residence in the southern town of Calabar. Remi Oyo, spokesperson to Obasanjo, said that the Nigerian government had ordered the aides’ immediate arrest.
White House chief of staff Andrew Card has resigned and will be replaced by budget chief Joshua Bolten, President George Bush said Tuesday. Bush has come under intense pressure in recent weeks, including from within his own Republican Party, to shake up his White House staff amid a sharp slump in his personal-approval ratings.