Gunmen who kidnapped a three-year-old British girl in southern Nigeria said they would kill her unless her father takes her place, the girl’s mother told the BBC on Friday. ”They say I can bring my husband to swap with the baby,” Oluchi Hill, a Nigerian national, told the British broadcaster.
The JSE was lacklustre on Friday, still following overseas markets. The rand was a tad softer at midday, which helped give a slight boost to the market. Traders said there was buying interest in metals counters, especially BHP Billiton shares, as well as banks.
Ask Scotland’s David Coulthard about his first British Grand Prix at Silverstone and his brow flickers slightly with exasperation. He had a spectacular 272km/h spin at Bridge corner preparing for the 1994 race, but that was topped for embarrassment when he twice stalled his Williams-Renault on the grid and was moved to the back after failing to get away at the start of the second formation lap.
Spare a thought this weekend for Michelle Wie and Freddy Adu. Rarely can two athletes of such immense promise have fallen so quickly on to the hard rocks of reality. Both are kids still and, in their respective disciplines, golf and football, capable of wonderful individual moments.
As Wimbledon entered its second week, the overriding feeling was of a tournament stubbornly refusing to catch fire. Obviously the poor weather and the fractured nature of almost every day’s play has contributed to a general feeling of dissatisfaction, although that has not been the sole reason for the damp blanket of ennui.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s trademark paunch presses a little less snugly against his jumpsuits these days, but is that due to a healthier lifestyle or is he recovering from illness? Two South Korean dailies ran pictures on Thursday of a slimmer Kim (65) at a meeting this week with China’s foreign minister.
E Neville Isdell has come a long way from delivery boy in apartheid South Africa to chief executive of The Coca-Cola Company , and now, champion of environmental protection. Isdell took the stage alongside United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon this week, leading the call for companies to do more to protect the environment.
Three Ekurhuleni metro policemen want a court order to ensure that metro police officers and chief Robert McBride do not come within 100m of them. The three — Stanley Segathevan, Patrick Johnstone and Ithumeleng Koko — were at the scene of an accident McBride was involved in last year, when he was allegedly intoxicated.
At least 20 children have died from a diarrhoea outbreak in a Zimbabwe mining town after drinking suspected contaminated water, official media reported on Friday. The Herald newspaper said the children were from the mining town of Kadoma, about 140km west of Harare.
Striking Vodacom employees were outraged that the company had blocked their cellphones, the Communication Workers Union said on Friday. The company said it was employing a ”no work, no pay, and no benefits” policy. Vodacom spokesperson Dot Field said the cellphones were not blocked and the workers were free to insert their own SIM cards into the handsets.