Malawi’s Parliament reconvenes next week to debate and pass the impoverished African nation’s already delayed budget after the Supreme Court ordered the opposition to end a boycott, an official said on Friday. Malawi’s opposition, which holds 105 of the Parliament’s 193 seats, had earlier obtained a court injuction barring debate on the country’s budget.
Beer deliveries resumed on Friday after the Zimbabwean government backed down on a price freeze on local lager brands and allowed producers to raise the prices of some other goods. Price cuts in Zimbabwe have left shelves bare of cornmeal, bread, meat and other basics. Businesses argued they were being told to sell their goods below the cost of producing them.
MOVIE OF THE WEEK: Shaun de Waal reviews The Bourne Ultimatum, the third instalment of the Bourne series.
The mayor of the Govan Mbeki municipality in Mpumalanga, arrested in connection with the murder of his deputy, will make a bail application next Friday, police said. Sipho Nkosi made a brief appearance in the Evander Magistrate’s Court on Friday and his bail application was postponed to August 17, Superintendent Sibongile Nkosi said.
The JSE plummeted a massive 1 132 points — more than 4% — on Friday as global credit fears submerged the local bourse in a bloodbath. The last time the JSE lost almost 1 000 points was on February 27 this year, according to a local trader. However, the 4,02% drop in the market was not the biggest seen by local investors.
Attempts to ”smear the names” of leaders of the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions was a part of ”the struggle”, SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande said on Friday. Nzimande was addressing the South African Clothing and Textile Workers Union 10th congress in Durban.
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang never told her axed deputy Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge that she would "fix" her, her department said on Friday. "We have confirmed with the minister that no such statement was ever made," the department said in response to an earlier statement by Madlala-Routledge at a media briefing.
Bulgarian nurses on Friday gave testimony against Libyan jailers who the medics said had tortured them to confess they deliberately infected hundreds of Libyan children with HIV. The six medics were freed on July 24 under a cooperation deal between Tripoli and the European Union, after having spent eight years in a Libyan jail and having been sentenced twice to death.
United Nations peacekeepers from Pakistan arranged armed escorts and provided food for illegal gold smugglers in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), but did not themselves trade weapons for gold, according to a United Nations report seen by Reuters on Friday.
Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson expects the English Premier League champions to be stronger for their title success when they launch the defence of their crown on Sunday. United ended Chelsea’s grip on the championship by winning the league for the first time in four years last season and Ferguson believes that experience will make them even better.