Europe faces an increasing threat from attacks with long-range missiles and could help avert the danger by building a missile-defence network, a senior North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) official warned on Wednesday. "There is a growing threat of long-range missile attacks," said Marshall Billingslea, head of Nato’s Conference of National Armaments Directors.
JSE-listed niche specialist banking and financial-services group Sasfin Holdings on Wednesday announced the acquisition of specialist Mauritian registered bank SBM Nedbank International from Nedcor Group for its net-asset value, plus a 5% premium, a total of approximately -million.
Police confiscated Mandrax tablets — worth about R60-million on the street — in a cargo depot at City Deep in Johannesburg on Wednesday. Senior Superintendent Mary Martins-Engelbrecht said the crime intelligence unit, the organised crime unit, the South African Revenue Service, customs, and the police dog unit resulted in the confiscation of the tablets early on Wednesday morning.
German organisers confirmed on Wednesday that football fans would be allowed to consume alcohol at next month’s World Cup finals. The organising committee said it was always the plan to sell beer at the 12 World Cup stadiums, although police have the right to order alcohol bans for matches they consider to be at risk from hooligans.
Western powers will wait a ”couple of weeks” before pressing tough United Nations action against Iran and offer new incentives for it to renounce its controversial nuclear activities, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday. Rice spoke after two days of intensive consultations on an approach to Tehran’s suspected effort to build a nuclear bomb.
A search for Alexandros T survivors continued on Wednesday, a week after the ship sank off South Africa’s south-east coast, the Greek embassy said. The tug Smit Amandla was still searching for 26 missing crew members on behalf of the ship’s owners, counsellor Dimitri Yannakakis said.
America’s most notorious polygamous sect is being investigated as an organised-crime operation, it emerged on Tuesday, in one of several signs that the net is closing on the group’s fugitive leader. Warren Jeffs, the self-declared prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, joined Osama bin Laden on the FBI’s most-wanted list at the weekend.
Police in London said on Wednesday they have arrested a 37-year-old man after a girl, aged 11, gave birth to a baby boy. The young girl, reportedly from an African country, went into labour at Hillingdon Hospital in West London on May 5. She and her baby have since been taken into the care of Hillingdon Borough Council.
Mickey Mouse’s genitals, plastic cats with Hitler moustaches, and a paint-flecked portrait of the French Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin, were among the works on show on Tuesday as Paris’s modern art triennial opened amid controversy and picketing.
China plans to build 48 new airports over the next five years in an aviation spending splurge that will delight architects and plane makers but heighten concerns among environmentalists. With the economy booming, hundreds of millions more journeys are being made by air every year, prompting a rush to buy planes that has made China the most important customer for Boeing and Airbus