If medical science is to be believed top Bafana Bafana scorer Shaun Bartlett is fit enough to play in Saturday’s crunch World Cup qualifying game against Ghana at FNB Stadium. A lingering pain resulted in the Bafana striker limping off the training pitch on Thursday — and Bartlett was consequently ”rested” from Friday’s final training session at Johannesburg Stadium.
Jonathan Moyo, President Robert Mugabe’s once-fiercely loyal information minister, is now conveniently speaking out against his former boss. Moyo has slammed the ruling Zanu-PF party for ”engaging in sunset politics” and attacked its policy of razing shanty towns — which has made 250 000 people homeless — as ”barbaric”.
From luxury confectionery and designer clothes to imported beers and expensive cars, Chinese shoppers are buying as they have never bought before. Sales at restaurants and retail outlets are growing even faster than the spectacular 9% annual expansion of the economy.
A stream of Iranians, many chorusing a demand for greater freedom, voted yesterday in a presidential election marred by violence and dismissed by the US as unfair. In Tehran, election officials reported a solid turnout for a contest between seven candidates in which the number of voters has been defined by religious rulers as paramount.
Two KwaZulu-Natal girls have been left traumatised after witnessing their father eat the flesh off their dead mother’s face on Friday morning. One of the girls, a seven year old, had also been stabbed in the head by the father. As police apprehended the father, he suddenly choked, became unconscious and died.
Modelled on the 1988 ”Mandela at 70” campaign for the then imprisoned leader, ”Suu Kyi at 60” involves demonstrations at virtually all Burmese embassies to protest the imprisonment of a leader who won 82% of the seats in Burma’s last general election in 1990, but has never been allowed to take office.
Once praised for their studiousness, Japan’s teenagers are gaining a less wholesome reputation, for promiscuity. Official figures show that Japanese schoolchildren are having more sex than ever before, and that many are shunning condoms, unaware of the risks of contracting HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.
Defending champion Retief Goosen was among five players who escaped with only minimal damage and remained under par at a US Open which turned into a horror show for some of the world’s best golfers. Goosen looked unflappable and unstoppable as ever until the slightest misses led to two bogeys in his final two holes.
What does the truth look like? Google, the company last week confirmed as the biggest media firm on the planet, rather hopes that it reads something like this: WO 2005/029368. According to that patent, Google is for the first time planning to rank news stories according to their accuracy and reliability as well as their topicality.
The JSE Securities Exchange roared to a record high on Friday, propelled by higher commodity prices and spill-over buying from Wednesday’s interrupted futures closeout. The gains came despite a firmer rand. By 12.08pm, the all share index advanced 0,8% to 14 323,94, having earlier touched an all-time high of 14 346,42.