Riot police enforced a wide security zone early on Thursday around a campsite housing thousands of anti-G8 protesters, hoping to avoid a repeat of violence that broke out on the opening day of the summit.
The R62 between Worcester and Robertson in the Boland is to open again on Thursday morning after it was closed when about 300 people blocked the route with burning tyres and dumped debris to protest the lack of service delivery to the De Doorns township.
A New York Times journalist was jailed for up to four months for contempt on Wednesday after she refused to reveal the source in an investigation into the leak of an undercover CIA officer’s name. Judith Miller was sent to a Washington DC jail for a term that will last until October, unless she relents and reveals her source.
A 20-year-old rape suspect committed suicide by cutting his throat with an electric grinder at the Tsolo police station in the Eastern Cape, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Wednesday. A police official said the rape suspect grabbed the grinder, an exhibit in another case, from the charge office and connected it to a power point.
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Kidnappers of Egypt’s top diplomat in Iraq have threatened to kill him because Egypt has allied with ”Jews and Christians,” according to a statement posted on Wednesday on an al-Qaeda-linked website. Meanwhile, a senior aide to radical Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr visited Bahrain’s diplomatic mission on Wednesday.
South Africa has to move on from its apartheid history and forge ahead with democracy despite the pain it often causes, Johannesburg High Court Judge Mohamed Jajbhay said on Wednesday. He was addressing human rights activists opposing the Absa takeover bid by Barclays Bank.
A former senior intelligence officer has quit Zimbabwe’s ruling party over the demolitions campaign that has left hundreds of thousands homeless, saying the governing clique is ”punishing the people” for no reason. Meanwhile, police have denied reports of four deaths during the demolition of a township.
Shareholders have given the thumbs-up for a R7,2-billion black economic empowerment deal (BEE) that will see 12,75% of Old Mutual plc’s South African operations going to black investors and staff. "We are pleased that shareholders have shown their strong support for our BEE ownership proposals," said chief executive Jim Sutcliffe.
A <i>Citizen</i> lead story entitled "Documentary claims Zuma was plot victim" has elicited a range of animated responses from the media industry. The piece refers to "an explosive TV documentary alleging former deputy president Jacob Zuma is the victim of a trial by media orchestrated by people within the African National Congress".