As an Anglican row over gay clergy deepens, growing numbers of conservative American priests are abandoning the liberal United States church and pledging allegiance to traditionalist African bishops instead. Africans, who take a tough line on homosexuality, are keen to recruit the dissident priests as bishops under their own authority.
Nigerian striker Obafemi Martins scored a vital brace, including a spectacular overhead kick, as Newcastle United opened their English Premier League campaign with a 3-1 win at Bolton Wanderers. Martins’s athletic strike was the eye-catching highlight of a busy and successful weekend for African players as the leading European soccer leagues began their seasons.
The JSE was holding on to gains of over 1% at midday on Monday as world markets tread in positive territory after last week’s global credit concerns started to fade. The FTSE was up 1,69%, the Hang Seng added 0,45% and the Nikkei gained 0,21%. At midday, the JSE all-share index climbed 1,10%.
Nasa engineers on Monday pored over new imagery of the space shuttle Endeavour‘s underbelly to decide if its damaged heat shield needed repair, as astronauts prepared for the mission’s second spacewalk. The three-dimensional images of a gouge in the shield were taken on Sunday by a camera, and measured by a laser.
An Australian farmer who was kidnapped and beaten in Mali after walking into an internet bride scam has pleaded with people to be careful looking for online love. South Australian farmer Des Gregor (56) returned to Australia on Sunday night after being held hostage by machete-armed bandits in Africa for 12 days.
About 3 500 mine workers downed tools on Monday over low salaries, trade union Solidarity said. Spokesperson Reint Dykema said Solidarity members were striking at coal mines around the country over an inadequate pay offer, particularly for artisans.
A foreign hostage has died of illness in the oil-producing Niger Delta in southern Nigeria, a source in the Bayelsa state government said on Sunday. The source had no details on the illness, the circumstances of the hostage’s death or his nationality, but said the body was at a hospital morgue in Yenagoa.
Champions Manchester United were held to a 0-0 home draw by 10-man Reading and lost England striker Wayne Rooney to a hairline fracture of his left foot in a wretched start to their title defence on Sunday. Chelsea opened their new Premier League season with a record-breaking 3-2 home win over Birmingham City while Arsenal snatched a late 2-1 victory at home to Fulham.
Vosloorus police said on Monday they knew nothing about a man who claimed his group of disgruntled unemployed people were behind a spate of ATM bombings. The Sowetan newspaper reported on Monday that Plaatjie Mashego, said to be a former Umkhonto weSizwe operative, had claimed responsibility for recent ATM blasts across the country.
A motorist was slightly injured when her car was stoned, then overturned by a rioting mob just off the R511, in Diepsloot, on Sunday night, said Netcare 911. She was taken to hospital with a laceration to her head, said Netcare 911 spokesperson Mark Stokoe.