A daily paper that was widely rumoured to have been taken over by Zimbabwe’s secret service has stopped publishing, it emerged on Friday. The Daily Mirror, originally a semi-private paper that was owned by moderate ruling party member and intellectual Ibbo Mandaza has not published an edition since Tuesday.
Sunday Times journalist David Bullard is ”doing very well” and may be moved out of the Milpark Hospital’s intensive-care unit, a hospital spokesperson said on Friday. ”He is doing very well and we are hoping to move him out of intensive care later today,” said Amelda Swartz.
Airbus plunged into its first-ever operating loss in 2006 and will be in the red again this year, parent company Eads said on Friday in another twist of the crisis at the European plane maker. Analysts at Citigroup investment bank said that prospects for Airbus were now "awful" after management warned about vast cost problems.
Opposition parties have vented their anger at the Correctional Services department’s scathing attack on the National Assembly’s correctional services committee. The committee this week rejected the department’s report on Annanias Mathe’s escape from Pretoria’s C-Max prison.
The Otago Highlanders ran in four tries to two on Friday to beat the Queensland Reds 33-17 and ensure they remained marooned at the bottom of the Super14 rugby competition. After a rough tour to South Africa early in the series, the Highlanders made the most of the home advantage at Carisbrook’s ”House of Pain”.
The South African Revenue Service (Sars) announced on Friday it would be intensifying its campaign to encourage small-business owners to apply for amnesty, and as a result, a number of Sars officials will visit various business premises in Hatfield, Pretoria.
At least two people were killed on Friday when a cyclone slammed into Australia’s north-west coast, paralysing mining operations and leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. Authorities feared category-four Cyclone George had also claimed a third life and caused numerous serious injuries, but said they were struggling to reach remote communities lashed by winds of 275km/h.
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The expensive silverware to be awarded to the winner of the Cricket World Cup in the Caribbean has been damaged while on display in India, organisers said on Friday. A gold ring below the coins depicting previous winners of the sport’s biggest prize got detached from the wooden base of the 11kg trophy.
President George Bush on Thursday night started a five-nation tour of Latin America in an effort to salvage Washington’s reputation in the region and counter the influence of Venezuela’s President, Hugo Chávez. Violent clashes were taking place between police and masked protesters in the financial centre of São Paulo, the president’s first stop.
Zimbabwe’s Information Minister on Thursday dismissed as a ”grandiose flight of imagination” claims by a Brussels-based think tank that President Robert Mugabe’s iron grip on the country was being challenged and could result in political change by next year.