China’s state television broadcasts were interrupted for nearly 15 minutes by a video about the banned Falun Gong spiritual group on Sunday evening. Falun Gong — which China has labeled an ”evil cult” and tried to suppress — denied tampering with the programming beamed across the country.
The JSE Securities Exchange (JSE) was flat in noon trade on Tuesday, having surrendered earlier gains in a late-morning sell-off. Dealers said that it had been a quiet morning on the local bourse, which had been mostly mixed and order driven. By 11.58am, the all-share index was flat at 14 310,69.
Coca-Cola has returned to Iraq after an absence of nearly four decades, triggering a cola war in a lucrative but potentially hostile market. Coke ended its 37-year exile last week by setting up a joint-venture bottling company to compete with Pepsi for 26-million consumers.
Just when it seemed nothing more could go wrong with Bafana Bafana’s hazardous preparation for the Concacaf Gold Cup tournament in the United States, along came Independence Day. On Monday, the US embassy was closed, leaving six Bafana players stranded in Johannesburg without visas.
According to South Africa’s Competition Tribunal, any public-interest concerns over the merger between listed retailer Edgars Consolidated Stores (Edcon) and Topics, regarding cheap clothing imports from China and the effect on local employment, cannot be cured by the imposition of a merger condition on a single firm.
Australian Robbie McEwen has hit out at what he called an unfair disqualification from the third stage of the Tour de France, held over 212,5km from La Chataigneraie to Tours on Monday. McEwen, of the Davitamon team, finished third in the sprint but was soon disqualified to the back of the peloton.
The five-city race to capture sport’s most glittering prize — the right to host the Olympics — has been reduced to a battle of two cities, International Olympic Committee (IOC) sources said on Tuesday. Only 24 hours before IOC members will decide the winner of the 2012 Games, it seems to be down to London and Paris.
Chelsea were reported on Tuesday to have lodged a staggering £32-million (R384-million) bid for Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard. Liverpool directors were believed to be trying to convince Gerrard to stay, despite Gerrard’s agent Struan Marshall insisting that contract talks had broken off.
Up to 100 anti-Group of 8 (G8) protesters were arrested in violent clashes with police in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, police said early on Tuesday. Riot police said they were bombarded with paving stones and bricks during several hours of pitched battles with 1Â 000 police in the city centre late on Monday.
If English wickets tumble in Thursday’s one-day international against Australia, captain Michael Vaughan is likely to send a bowler packing and tell substitute Matt Prior to pad up. And Australia captain Ricky Ponting interprets the law changes that will be trialled in the three-match series, beginning in Leeds Thursday, in much the same way.