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Nasa called off Wednesday’s launch of Discovery — the first by a US space shuttle since the 2003 Columbia disaster — after detecting a faulty fuel sensor. The flight was postponed two hours and 20 minutes before the scheduled lift-off. The seven crew members had already boarded Discovery.
Municipal officials and councillors found guilty of misusing public funds will be strictly dealt with, Matjhabeng executive mayor Serake Leeu warned on Wednesday. He was reacting to a report by the Free State auditor general’s office into alleged irregularities in debt collecting at the Matjhabeng local municipality in 2001 and 2002.
The first thing many passengers heard was a huge bang that shocked them out of their sleep. They saw something right out of a nightmare. ”We saw several coaches skidded off the track and there were bodies lying scattered across the railway yard,” said one survivor of Pakistan’s rail disaster on Wednesday, which left up to 150 people dead.
Former president Nelson Mandela is an inspiration to the youth to strive for greatness rather than material success.
The Zimbabwean government’s demolition of houses and policy of forced removals must be stopped, the South African Council of Churches (SACC) said on Wednesday. ”In God’s name, stop Operation Murambatsvina,” the SACC central committee concluded after a two-day meeting held in Johannesburg.
Two Nigerian men appeared in court on Wednesday charged with committing sodomy and could now face being stoned to death after they were caught together in a toilet in this northern Muslim city. A senior United Nations envoy has called on Nigeria to drop homosexuality from the list of crimes punishable by death under sharia law.
The Iraqi judge in charge of questioning Saddam Hussein and his former regime henchmen said on Wednesday that more than 80% of the investigation into their cases is complete. ”Deciding the date of the trials is not the speciality of the investigative judges,” said Raed Juhi, a senior judge on the Iraqi special tribunal.
Local coin dealer Investgold may trade in gold coins bearing former president Nelson Mandela’s image for the next six months, the company said in Johannesburg on Wednesday. This follows months of negotiations between Investgold and the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
Edgars Consolidated Stores (Edcon), one of South Africa’s largest retailers, will see its shares split in a ratio of 10 new shares for every one existing Edcon share at the beginning of trade on Monday July 25, the company said on Wednesday. The share split will facilitate a staff empowerment transaction.