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Durban businessman Schabir Shaik was sentenced to an effective 15-year jail term for fraud and corruption in the city’s high court on Wednesday. Judge Hillary Squires likened corruption to a ”cancer eating away at the fabric of corporate probity” and said Shaik had ”lost his moral compass”.
An Australian woman has been arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle 51 tropical fish into Australia concealed under her skirt, customs officials said on Monday. The 43-year-old woman drew the attention of customs officers intrigued by "flipping" noises coming from under her skirt, a customs spokesperson said.
North Korea on Wednesday ruled out new talks on its nuclear ambitions unless Washington meets unspecified conditions, in a setback to efforts to resolve the stand-off. A fourth round of the stalled six-nation talks will take place only when the United States agrees to its demands, the Stalinist state said.
A Las Vegas museum dedicated to the memory and myth of Elvis Presley has launched a worldwide casting call for impersonators of the "King of Rock", organisers said on Monday. Elvis-a-Rama is a sprawling museum that is home to a collection of more than $6-million-worth of Presley memorabilia.
A German court on Tuesday quashed the hopes of a group of naturists who wanted to cycle along the Rhine river wearing nothing more than a smile. The group of 12 naturists was planning to cycle along the Rhine in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg on Saturday as part of what it was dubbing "World Nude Cycling Day".
A German woman was astonished to find deutschemark banknotes and account savings books worth €100 000 (R821 000) tucked in the lining of an old washing basket she bought at a flea market. The woman, from Bavaria, bought the basket for just €7 (R57),
Hundreds of police were deployed in the Zimbabwean capital on Wednesday and army units were reportedly on standby before a two-day strike called by critics of President Robert Mugabe to protest his clampdown on street traders and slum dwellers.
The bulk carrier Kiperousa is still aground by the stern off the Eastern Cape coast and is awaiting a salvage tanker from Cape Town, the National Ports Authority (NPA) said on Wednesday. Shortly after 11am on Tuesday, a Mayday signal was put out by the vessel and a massive rescue operation was launched.
An official from Zimbabwe’s ruling party has told a court in Harare he was tortured into making statements over his alleged role in selling state secrets to South Africa. Kenny Karidza, a security official in President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party was arrested with four other top party members in December.
The MPs and travel agents charged in connection with Travelgate, the parliamentary travel-voucher scam, will go to trial in the Cape High Court on July 31 next year, if the National Prosecuting Authority has its way. But lawyers for most of the accused said on Wednesday that they intend to fight the move to transfer the case to the high court.