Ten people, including three women, arrested in connection with the ”necklace” murder of three men in Jeffrey’s Bay, appeared briefly in the Humansdorp Magistrate’s Court on Friday. They are still in police custody and their formal bail applications are expected to be heard on August 18, 19 and 20.
Until now, the city has been regarded as Italy’s industrial and banking capital, an austere place best known for its fascist-era railway station and its gothic cathedral. But Milan’s skyline is about to undergo radical change. Three glassy skyscrapers are planned, under the direction of Daniel Libeskind, the principal architect for the new World Trade Centre in New York.
President Robert Mugabe lashed out at Britain on Friday, saying Zimbabwe can ”never be friends” with the former colonial ruler in a eulogy at the funeral of a liberation war veteran. Mugabe blamed Britain, which ruled Zimbabwe until independence in 1980, for ”the great suffering of our people, the oppression that took place, the loss of our land, the suppression of our freedoms.”
Public service wage negotiations officially broke down in Pretoria on Friday, labour unions said. ”The conciliator issued a certificate of non-conciliation this morning after minimum talks in the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council,” said Public Servants’ Association general manager Anton Louwrens.
Thinking back over it, I more and more frequently begin to wonder why I bother to write at all. What difference does it make to the bigger picture? There was that piece about the King of Afghanistan being wooed in hectic fashion by members of the American Congress. ”Come on back to your country,” they yelled into his increasingly incredulous, elderly face that had grown used to life on the Italian Riviera.
Yeoville serial rapist, Fanwell Khumalo (42), was sentenced in the Johannesburg High Court to a total of more than 270 years in prison on Friday after being convicted on 103 counts of rape, kidnapping and indecent assault. He received 42 life sentences and may never be considered for parole.
The inauguration of Somalia’s transitional Parliament was on Thursday postponed to August 19, after disagreements over nominees from various clans once again delayed earlier plans to swear in the MPs and launch the assembly. The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development had expected to launch the Parliament on July 30.
Fierce clashes between supporters of the militant cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and United States and Iraqi forces in the key city of Najaf on Thursday have threatened to trigger a renewed uprising across southern Iraq. The fragile peace that has held in the holy city since June was shattered by deadly fighting that began late on Wednesday and continued well into Thursday evening.
United States planes pounded the central Iraqi holy city of Najaf on Friday as intense clashes raged between US forces and Shi’ite Muslim militiamen in the worst fighting since a truce was agreed in June. More than 50 people were killed and more than 170 wounded as the unrest fanned out across Shi’ite central and southern Iraq.
Shia rising fear after Najaf battle
The Department of Labour this week moved to resolve a falling-out between a major labour union and one of the government’s skills development agencies. The Food and Allied Workers’ Union has announced its decision to withdraw seven of its members from the Sector Education and Training Authority for Secondary Agriculture board.