The South African Rugby Union (Saru) has distanced itself from speculation that a Japanese team might be included in an expanded Super 14 competition. The idea was floated by Australian Rugby Union chief executive John O’Neill who was quoted as saying the idea of adding a Japanese team was on the agenda of Sanzar.
Recent revelations on how the African National Congress used its investment arm Chancellor House to divert taxpayer’s money into its own coffers explains the ruling party’s obsession with black empowerment policy, Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille said on Friday.
South Africans are not saving enough power, President Thabo Mbeki told a community development workers’ indaba [meeting] in Midrand on Friday. ”I get a sense that we haven’t quite got this message through that it’s a national challenge which requires a response by all South Africans,” he said.
Zimbabwe’s police chief says his force will not allow British and American ”puppets” to take power in Zimbabwe, sending an ominous signal to opposition leaders ahead of March 29 polls, reports said on Friday. Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri is the third service chief to come out in support of Robert Mugabe.
Casualty smells like pee and disinfectant. Red lino floors, neon lights, some of them flickering. Daniel is taken behind a powder-blue curtain, brown in some places. He tries to swallow his whimpers as he goes. In the far corner, somebody throws up. In the corridor, a doctor snaps at a nurse. Behind the front desk, a nurse snaps at a doctor.
The resources index kept the JSE in firmer territory by midday on Friday, enhancing the morning session’s gains. At noon, the JSE’s broader all-share index was up 1%, driven by the 1,75% advance in the resources index. The gold mining index recovered 0,06% but the platinum mining index gave up 0,23%.
Kidnappers of a Chaldean Catholic archbishop found dead in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul had demanded a -million ransom, a senior police official said on Friday. Paulos Faraj Rahho, the archbishop of Mosul, 390km north of Baghdad, was abducted on February 29 after gunmen attacked his car and killed his driver and two guards.
For one spring evening in a blue-tiled mosque just south of Tehran, it sounds and feels as though the hour of the Iranian reformists has come again. The mosque is packed with men and boys chanting the name of Mohammad Khatami. They push and shove in the hope of catching a glimpse of the former president who tried to smooth some of the sharp edges of the Islamic republic.
Dale Steyn used to be a well-scrubbed bloke who wore a goofy grin that wobbled harmlessly under starry, starry eyes. He was polite and cheerful, and he could bowl a bit. He probably never said ”Well, golly gee.” But if he did, we would have chuckled heartily and ruffled his hair as if the lot of us were in a Spur commercial.
Tim Modise’s days at the 2010 local organising committee (LOC) are numbered and the only questions are whether he will fall on his own sword or be axed, say informed sources close to the LOC and in the government. The sources told the Mail & Guardian the one-time star broadcaster is struggling with his role as chief officer of communications and marketing.