South Africa’s national air carrier South African Airlines (SAA) has signed a consent order with the competition commission to pay R55-million in administrative penalties for fixing prices and fuel-levy charges on flight tickets. The airline was also penalised for abusing its dominant position in the domestic market.
Jurors deliberated for a fifth day on Wednesday in the fraud trial of former Enron chief executives Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay, after a separate trial of Lay before a judge on banking charges concluded. The eight women and four men, who have already debated for about 24 hours over four days, have given no indication of their progress.
A huge fire engulfed the cargo section of Istanbul’s international Atatürk airport on Wednesday. Black smoke billowed high into the air, television footage showed. The fire caused panic at the airport, and authorities were trying to evacuate hundreds of people from nearby terminals.
Mamelodi police and the principal at Gatang Secondary School addressed pupils on Wednesday after violence erupted in the area following a schoolgirl’s rape on Monday. ”Mamelodi police leadership and the principal are talking to pupils about what happened yesterday [Tuesday],” said police spokesperson Constable Brenda Kgafela.
Serbia and Montenegro began on Wednesday the difficult task of dismantling their union, with opposition parties yet to accept referendum results showing Montenegrins had voted for independence. Seeking a speedy split, Serbia-Montenegro President Svetozar Marovic, a Montenegrin, has already announced plans to resign on Thursday.
The World Bank believes Zimbabwe has the capacity to reclaim its position as the breadbasket of Southern Africa, Harare’s The Herald newspaper reported on Wednesday. For this to happen the country would have to revitalise its road, railway and water infrastructure, the paper’s website quoted World Bank country manager Sudhir Chitale as saying.
The Wallabies will play a more forward-orientated game under new coach John Connolly, team vice-captain Nathan Sharpe said on Wednesday. Connolly has shown his intentions to restore order at the set pieces by appointing noted ”scrum doctor” Alec Evans as an assistant to forwards coach Michael Foley.
Former Iraqi deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz took the witness stand on Wednesday to defend Saddam Hussein and his associates in a case involving the killing of Shi’ite civilians from Dujail in the 1980s. His testimony focused on the series of assassination attempts against officials of the Ba’ath regime at that time.
Suppliers of gas cylinders for heating have run out of stock after this week’s cold spell and customers in Johannesburg and other inland and KwaZulu-Natal regions have been turned away empty-handed, media reports said on Wednesday. Liquid-gas supplier Afrox is experiencing an unprecedented demand, the company said.
Sixty suspected Taliban and five members of the Afghan security forces were killed in a major new clash in southern Afghanistan, a top Afghan army commander and police said on Wednesday. The fighting erupted on Tuesday after an Afghan army patrol came under attack in volatile Uruzgan province.