South Africa beat Ireland by 42 runs in a one-day international at Stormont on Sunday. Australian-born Alex Cusask took three wickets on his one-day international debut as Ireland held South Africa to 173 for four in a match reduced by rain to 31 overs per side.
Esperance of Tunisia dropped two precious African Champions League points when held 0-0 by Asec Mimosas of Côte d’Ivoire this weekend. Al-Ahly of Egypt, seeking a record third consecutive title, are favoured to top Group B, leaving Esperance and Asec to fight for the other semifinal slot with Al-Hilal of Sudan.
It is pure coincidence that a postponed labour meeting to decide on the public-service dispute will coincide with the start of the African National Congress policy conference on Wednesday, said the Congress of South African Trade Unions on Sunday. Meanwhile, a large teachers’ union has announced its withdrawal from the strike.
More than 200 people were killed as torrential rain and thunderstorms lashed the Pakistani port city of Karachi on Sunday, destroying hundreds of homes and causing widespread power outages. Gale-force winds uprooted trees and power pylons and blew down roofs and walls, crushing and electrocuting scores of victims.
Scientists have developed a novel way to combat one of the world’s stickiest and most expensive maritime problems: the encrusting of ships’ hulls by algae and barnacles. They have created a special coating that is engineered to a scale of a millionth of a millimetre. Organisms that try to hitch a ride will simply slip off.
Globalisation has reduced the bargaining power of unskilled workers and pushed up inequality in many Western countries, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said this week, urging governments to improve their social safety nets. The Paris-based rich nations club said in its annual Employment Outlook that the prospect of offshoring was likely to have increased the vulnerability of jobs.
Politically motivated shootings targeting government ministers and senior ruling-party officials continued to wreak havoc in the Lesotho capital, Maseru, this week. The most recent wave of attacks started on June 10, when armed men attacked bodyguards at three government ministers’ homes. Several days later opposition leader Tom Thabane’s house was attacked.
Another week of hearings at the banking inquiry of the Competition Commission; another bonanza for the lawyers. All the banks seem to have lawyers present at all the hearings, madly taking notes and looking very serious. The debate can degenerate into mind-numbing legalese, which is no doubt important in determining the legal framework of anti-competitive behaviour, writes Maya Fisher-French.
Betty was nine when her mother told her she would have to leave Nigeria and live with a family friend in the United Kingdom. The girl was sad to leave her five sisters and two brothers, but the family was poor, living in one room, taking turns to sleep on the only bed. In Britain, it seemed, Betty’s life would at least be easier. Nothing could have been further from the truth.
After the inflation target was breached, the Reserve Bank was widely seen as justified in increasing interest rates early in June for the fifth time in a year. The question is less whether it should have done so, but whether we have chosen the correct inflation target.