Workers may have accidentally cut or crushed the section of foam that broke off Discovery‘s fuel tank during its launch two months ago — a mishap that threatened the safety of the astronauts and grounded the shuttle fleet. That is the leading theory for the cause behind the disturbing loss of foam insulation that cast a cloud over Nasa’s return to space, said Wayne Hale, the new manager of the space shuttle programme.
There is still no progress in the hunt for the killer or killers of mining magnate Brett Kebble, police said on Wednesday. It is still not known whether the killing of the controversial businessman was an assassination or a botched hijacking. Meanwhile, police returned to the crime scene on Wednesday.
Two Pretoria advocates, charged with a variety of sex crimes, attacked the credibility of two of their alleged child victims on Wednesday, claiming they lied. Advocates Dirk Prinsloo and Cezanne Visser are seeking the Pretoria High Court’s leave to cross-examine a social worker on the backgrounds of the two girls.
South Africa’s two hockey teams in action at the Africa Cup of Nations on Tuesday remained on course for places in Saturday’s finals, although the women had a much more satisfactory day than their male counterparts did. The women’s team took their Nigerian opponents apart at Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria.
Africa won the battle of the continents on Tuesday when Team Shosholoza chalked up her third victory of the week-long Trapani Louis Vuitton Act 8 off Sicily with a walk-over win of four minutes and 22 seconds against China Team.
The withering sentence imposed on Kaizer Chiefs for the widespread violence of their supporters during the recent Supa8 Cup game against Bloemfontein Celtic at the FNB Stadium was on Tuesday diluted a step further. The arbitration hearing into the controversial affair waived the suspended sentence of two games that had been imposed on Chiefs.
Hurricane Stan, which slammed ashore on Mexico’s oil-rich Gulf coast on Tuesday but was downgraded to a tropical storm by the end of the day, drenched much of the country’s south after killing at least 58 people. The storm packed maximum sustained winds of 130kph as it made landfall near Punta Roca Partida, 120km southeast of the port city of Veracruz.
By the time she was in her early 20s, Rania al-Baz had become one of the best-known and best-loved faces in her home country of Saudi Arabia. As presenter of a programme called The Kingdom This Morning on state-owned television, her hair was always covered by a hijab, as is required, but her face remained uncovered, and she would choose headscarves of defiantly flamboyant colours to cover her immaculately styled hair.
According to the latest Absa house-price index, nominal house prices rose by 17,6% year-on-year in September, versus a revised 19,6% in August, the lowest year-on-year growth since December 2002, when it was 17,3%. On a month-on-month basis, nominal growth in house prices was 0,6% in September.
The nucleus of Bafana Bafana’s top stars on Wednesday joined the squad in Durban for Saturday’s decisive African Nations Cup qualifier against the Democratic Republic of Congo as scheduled. ”Everything is running smoothly,” commented general manager Stanley ”Screamer” Tshabalala.