How to spend the night in a protest rally and not freeze, or bring food to protestors and not be molested by the police? Ask those Belarussian websites not yet shut down by the authorities.
Eight miners were trapped underground on Thursday after a fire in the Buffelsfontein gold mine at Stilfontein, the company said. Simmer & Jack Mines chief executive Gordon Miller said everything humanly possible was being done to rescue the miners. Indications were that the fire was caused by an electrical problem.
Municipal officials have for the second time levied a dog tax on the Bruintjes family in the Dutch town of Oldenzaal for their barking doorbell, the family said on Thursday. The Bruintjes have chosen a ring for their computer-controlled doorbell that mimicks their dead German shepherd.
Ivana Edwards’s friends and neighbours laughed when she and her husband built their steel-reinforced concrete house 20 years ago to withstand any weather that tropical northern Australia could throw at them. But as category-five Cyclone Larry arrived, she knew they had been right.
![]()
Jacob Zuma’s lawyers will make an application on Monday to ask for certain evidence of two policemen to be declared inadmissible, the Johannesburg High Court heard on Thursday. Zuma’s lawyer, Kemp J Kemp, said he would also make an application under Section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Act for the discharge of the rape charge against Zuma.
New Zealand television network C4 apologised on Thursday for showing an episode of South Park that featured a bleeding statue of the Virgin Mary, and pledged not to repeat the episode. Roman Catholic bishops and church members condemned the decision to air the show, and on Thursday dismissed the channel’s ”so-called sincere apology” as ”self-serving”.
John Terry’s fourth-minute strike put Chelsea into the FA Cup semifinals, earning a 1-0 victory over Newcastle on Wednesday to keep the Blues on course for their first league-cup double. The England centreback’s goal at Stamford Bridge sent the Blues into the final four along with Liverpool and West Ham.
Building costs as measured by the cost to the client (including building materials, labour, fuel and contractor profit-margin) have risen by about 85% in the past six years, driven by the rising momentum in activity in the building and construction industry over the period. This rise was far beyond the overall pace of inflation in the economy.
Tiger Woods skipped his final practice round for the Players Championship on Wednesday amid rumours that he had flown to California to be with his ailing father. ”Tiger Woods was off site today for personal reasons,” Woods’s manager, Mark Steinberg, said in a statement.
The Vodacom Cup reaches the halfway mark this weekend, and there are still a host of teams in contention for the trophy. The Falcons have been the form team this season, leading through six rounds with five wins and only one defeat. Griquas have a mountain to climb at the Bosman Stadium in Brakpan on Saturday.