Has Andre Markgraaff already resigned from his post as South African Rugby Union deputy president, or not? This was the question being asked late on Sunday amid conflicting media reports earlier in the day. While some of these suggested the controversial Markgraaff had already left his post, others reported he would make his final decision only on Monday.
Australians awoke on Monday to the queasy feeling that cricket’s Ashes may be headed back to England after a gut-wrenching two-run defeat in the second Test to square the five-match series. Australians sat on their edge of the seats on Sunday evening watching their team’s compelling tail-end fightback
Rescuers were on Monday scrambling to save more than 100 workers trapped deep underground in a flooded coal mine in southern China as their chances of survival faded and water levels continued to rise. The accident happened on Sunday afternoon at the Daxing coal mine about 265km northeast of the provincial capital Guangzhou in Guangdong province.
She has pipe-stem limbs and displays every rib on her narrow chest, but two-year-old Hasana is not sick enough to be treated in a hospital. Under a white plastic tent, an aid agency doctor has a few minutes to make decisions about the lives of scores of babies. Outside his tent, a sea of desperate mothers queue in the boiling sun, hoping for food for their children.
The United States space agency Nasa will hope to lay the ghosts of the Columbia disaster to rest on Monday morning as it guides the shuttle Discovery back to earth at the end of the US’s first manned space mission for two-and-a-half years.
Israel’s Finance Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, resigned from the government on Sunday, claiming its plan to withdraw from settlements in the occupied territories would allow the creation of a base for ”Islamic terrorism”. Netanyahu submitted his letter of resignation as the Cabinet met to rubber stamp the first phase of the evacuation of settlements in Gaza.
South Africa’s leading mining union hit the world’s top gold producer with its largest strike in 18 years as workers walked off the job on Sunday evening. The National Union of Mineworkers, with about 80Â 000 members in the gold mining sector, started a national strike at 6pm after it declared a wage dispute with employers last week.
Ibrahim Ferrer, who achieved fame late in life as the singer of the Buena Vista Social Club, died on Saturday in Havana at the age of 78. Ferrer, known for his trademark cap and greying moustache, was a devotee of traditional styles of Cuban music such as son and bolero.
The public protector’s report on Oilgate is a dismal, depressing, disingenuous display of intellectual dishonesty. First and foremost, the public protector has taken an absurdly literal and narrow view of the distinction between public and private. As the report is at pains to point out, the public protector’s statutory duty is to investigate maladministration in public office.
HCI, the JSE Securities Exchange-listed group, headed by former trade unionists Marcel Golding and John Copelyn, may be remembered as South Africa’s first black economic empowerment predator. It recently bid for control of Johnnic, its chief rival for control of Tsogo Investment Holdings, which in turn controls the casino and hotel assets of Tsogo Sun. HCI stands accused of sharp practice as it wages its casino war.