Monday marked the first day of Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, with teams of soldiers and police officers slated to fan out throughout the Gaza Strip’s 21 settlements to hand settlers notices telling them to quit their homes. Those who have not left after 48 hours face being removed by force.
A dramatic last-hole birdie saw Phil Mickelson capture his second major title when he won the storm-delayed 87th PGA Championship on Monday. The 35-year-old American carded a closing two-over 72 to finish on four-under 276 for the year’s final major tournament.
South Africa’s Annelize du Pisani has won a bronze medal in the singles event at the tenpin bowling Women’s World Championships held in Aalborg, Denmark. Players from 40 countries took part in the championships, which ended with a medal ceremony and banquet on Saturday.
As the Monday deadline for drafting Iraq’s Constitution inched closer, leaders of the war-torn country battled to complete the draft, delaying the special Parliament session called to consider the charter. A source in the communication department of the 275-member National Assembly said the delay was for two hours.
The formation of a government of national unity in Zimbabwe is not necessarily the solution to that country’s political problems, a South African government official said on Monday. Neither the ruling Zanu-PF nor the opposition regards a unity government as an imperative, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad said.
A 17-year-old boy appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Monday accused of stabbing a 22-year-old man to death at the Menlyn Park shopping centre, east of the city, on Friday night. Police spokesperson Inspector Lucas Sithole said the 17-year-old was charged with the murder of 22-year-old Juan Lee Olivier.
One of South Africa’s leading tennis players of the post-war era, Sheila Summers, passed away peacefully in her sleep on Sunday night in Johannesburg. She was 86. In 1947, Summers was the first South Africa woman to reach a Wimbledon semifinal and two years later became the first South African to win a Wimbledon title.
Dozens of illegal miners were feared on Monday to be trapped in a pit that caved in when they were digging for gold in eastern Ghana, according to witnesses. A combined rescue effort led by the police in conjunction with Newmont and Ghanaian-South African mining company Anglogold Ashanti was under way on Monday.
Police have issued a robbery and plunder warning to businesses in Cape Town ahead of what the Congress of South African Students (Cosas) says will be a massive march through the city centre on Tuesday. The march is to call for improved safety measures for violence-plagued schools on the Cape Flats.
The United Association of South Africa (Uasa) has accepted a revised wage-increase offer from gold mines, the union said. ”We are quite satisfied,” said Uasa official Tim Kruger. The union accepted the offer after talks with the Chamber of Mines earlier in the day.