An unmanned Delta rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station early on Saturday, sending a water-analysing science probe on its way to Mars. The Phoenix spacecraft, which lifted off at 9.26am GMT, is expected to reach the northern polar region of Mars on May 25.
It took two days of trekking through the bush, before navigating a crocodile-infested river and then scrambling underneath a barbed wire fence for Peter Nkomo and his family to make good their great escape from the meltdown of Zimbabwe to South Africa.
Fuel shortages will continue on Sunday as talks to resolve a pay strike deadlocked on Saturday night. The Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood, and Allied Workers’ Union (Ceppwawu) and the National Petroleum Employers’ Association resumed talks with the bargaining council at the Chamber of Mines in Johannesburg at 10am on Sunday.
The South African Rugby Players Association will challenge the decision of the rugby administration in South Africa that no overseas-based players will in future be eligible for national selection. The union claims that the players were never informed about the decision and that they were never consulted about it.
Stretches of pristine beaches wind around Mozambique’s coast, a slice of paradise where trouble is brewing as foreigners cash in at the expense of locals from a boom in tourism. Practically destroyed during a 27-year civil war ending in 1994, tourism in the former Portuguese colony has skyrocketed in recent years, as holidaymakers are drawn to its white sands and crystal clear waters.
A United States soldier convicted by a military court in the gang rape and murder of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and the killing of her family was sentenced to 110 years in prison on Saturday. Private Jesse Spielman (22) was found guilty of four counts of murder, rape, conspiracy to commit rape and housebreaking with the intent to commit rape.
Comedian and actor Eddie Murphy has acknowledged that he is the father of the baby daughter born to Spice Girls member Melanie Brown. The singer brought a paternity suit against Murphy last week after he had failed to accept publicly that the girl, called Angel, was his.
The death toll from raging floods in India neared 1Â 100 on Sunday as more people drowned in swollen rivers that have stranded millions in their homes, officials said. Four people died overnight in Uttar Pradesh, taking the death toll to 123 in the northern state where 2Â 400 villages have been cut off by the floods, a government spokesperson said.
Two Sunday newspapers have reported that South African Communist Party (SACP) general secretary Blade Nzimande is being investigated for alleged theft and fraud. The Sunday Times and City Press wrote that a businessman claimed in an affidavit that he donated R500 000 to the SACP in 2002, but the money never reached the party coffers.
South Sudan has awarded two companies exploration licenses for gold and uranium in areas thought to be rich in minerals. British/South African New Kush Exploration and Mining Company and the United Kingdom-listed Brinkley Mining paid 000 for one-year exploration licenses in the area bordering Kenya.