A doctor has been arrested for applying a painkiller to help a Japanese gangster chop off a businessman’s little finger, a mob rite meant to prove character by enduring pain, police said on Tuesday. Gangster Kyoji Kakutani (49) had reportedly invested in the businessman’s company and when the firm went bust demanded the 44-year-old’s pinkie.
The JSE continued to press on to record highs on Tuesday despite heavyweight resources stocks being dragged down by a stronger rand. Banking group FirstRand led the upside on a mediareport that it could be the target of a takeover by Citigroup.
Lebanon’s outgoing Defence Minister Elias Murr was wounded on Tuesday morning in an explosion in a Christian suburb just north of the capital Beirut that also caused fatalities, the police said. Murr, the son-in-law of President Emile Lahoud and deputy prime minister, was taken to Serhal hospital, where an employee said his condition was ”good”.
One of the most colourful and legendary Blue Bulls of all time, Fiks van der Merwe, has died in Pretoria at the age of 88, family members confirmed on Monday. He was also the second-oldest living Springbok. Van der Merwe played on the flank in the Springboks’ first post-World War II Test against the All Blacks in 1949.
South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni says much can be learned from the European Union as the Southern African Development Community (SADC) attempts to create a single monetary union for the region by 2016, adding that it is necessary to be strict about macroeconomic convergence criteria.
The Netherlands claimed the final qualifying place at the 2007 Cricket World Cup on Monday as they trounced the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by 145 runs in the International Cricket Council Trophy fifth-place play-off. Bermuda, Canada, hosts Ireland and Scotland have already qualified from this tournament.
One of Europe’s leading hopes to break a six-year drought in the British Open, Padraig Harrington, has withdrawn from this week’s renewal after the death of his father on Monday. The 33-year-old Irishman had been told in March that his father, Patrick, had contracted cancer of the oesophagus.
A man and a woman have been arrested in the Johannesburg area in connection with a murder case in which the victim was set in concrete, East Rand police said on Monday. Superintendent Andy Pieke said a Boksburg man found the corpse encased in concrete in a dustbin in his yard in Boksburg on Sunday.
United States First Lady Laura Bush arrived in Cape Town on Monday where she will spend time with her daughters while visiting HIV/Aids centres, the American embassy said. On the apron at the Cape Town International airport, awaiting her arrival in a US Air Force jet, was a cavalcade of more than 30 vehicles.
Arsenal have admitted for the first time that Juventus have made a move to sign captain Patrick Vieira. Highbury chairperson Peter Hill-Wood said the club might sell the 29-year-old, whose contract expires in 2007.