Top seed Andre Agassi’s warm-up for next week’s French Open ended in a first-round elimination at the hands of lowly Serb Nenad Zimonjic in the 000 ATP clay-court tournament in St Polten, Austria, on Monday. The 34-year-old American fell 6-2, 7-6 (8/6) to 339th-ranked Zimonjic.
An artillery round containing deadly sarin nerve gas exploded after it was discovered by coalition forces in Iraq, causing a ”very small dispersal of agent”, a United States military spokesperson said on Monday. Sarin works by being inhaled or absorbed through the skin and kills by crippling the nervous system.
As the government’s national roll-out of anti-retrovirals (ARVs) intensifies, there is growing concern that the available sources of supply — including the only South African company manufacturing generic ARVs, Aspen Pharmacare — could be pressurised by the demand.
A 32-year-old Johannesburg man was found guilty on Monday of loading a virus on to the computers of Edgars, an act which the company claims cost it R20-million and affected up to 700 stores. Because the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act is not yet in force, the man was charged with malicious damage to property.
Former Liberian soldiers ran riot in Monrovia’s red-light district on Monday, leaving one dead, amid confusion about their timetable for disarming. Hundreds of fighters up-ended market stalls, broke windows and brandished their weapons in the melee, which ended with dozens of injuries. One person was killed.
European Union foreign ministers on Monday condemned an Israeli campaign of home demolitions in the Gaza Strip as disproportionate and urged Israel to stop the action immediately. Meanwhile, residents of Rafah on Monday awaited the start of further demolition operations by the Israeli army.
At least 22 civilians were killed and 11 wounded in an overnight rebel attack on a displaced people’s camp near the northern Ugandan town of Gulu, an aid worker and an army spokesperson said on Monday. ”Many people were either shot or hacked to death,” a Norwegian Refugee Council programme manager said.
Iceland was embroiled in a political crisis on Monday as the country’s president appeared poised to veto a media law proposed by the government, a first in the Icelandic republic’s 60-year history. The draft law calls for the break-up of media groups if they concentrate too much power over media in their hands.
Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana said on Monday he and Minister of Education Naledi Pandor will soon meet to discuss ways to refocus South Africa’s technikons and universities. The drop-out rate of black students at these institutions is of concern to the government, Mdladlana said.
Two of South Africa’s biggest employers have committed themselves to supporting HIV/Aids vaccine research and development by collectively donating R4-million to the South African Aids Vaccine Initiative. Impala Platinum Holdings will invest R2,5-million over five years while Transnet donated R1,5-million.