Workers will picket overnight at Zimbabwe border posts the day before elections take place in that country, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said on Tuesday. The protests on March 30 will be the culmination of other blockades and demonstrations organised by Cosatu throughout March.
FirstRand CEO Laurie Dippenaar believes the financial services group is more focused after a recent brand alignment, and that, barring any "unforeseen external shocks", it is also well positioned to achieve its stated objective of 10% real growth. FirstRand lifted attributable profits by a whopping 23% to R2,8-billion for the six months ended December.
The days when almost everyone in Romania was a millionaire are numbered, starting on Tuesday when sceptical Romanians were greeted with old and new prices as the country takes the first steps to introducing the ”heavy leu”. The 22-month process will see four zeros zapped from the national currency, weakened after 15 years of high inflation.
Michael Jackson abused a 13-year-old boy who suffered from cancer and exposed the teenager to ”strange sexual behaviour” during visits to his Neverland ranch. The star was then involved in a desperate bid to salvage his career from claims that threatened to destroy him, a jury heard on Monday.
Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett’s GlobalFlyer plane took off into the clear Kansas skies on Tuesday, setting in motion a world record bid described by his backer and friend Richard Branson as the last great aviation record — flying nonstop and solo around the world.
One of Germany’s most acclaimed archaeological finds — a 3 600-year-old disc depicting the stars and the planets — is at the centre of a dispute following claims that it is a modern forgery. According to Germany’s museum establishment, the Sky Disc of Nebra is the oldest depiction of the heavens discovered and offers an insight into the Bronze Age mind.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) hoped to speedily set up a team to observe Zimbabwe’s elections on March 31, South Africa’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Aziz Pahad, said on Tuesday. South Africa, as chair of SADC’s organ on politics, defence and security, has sent letters to member countries asking for nominations for the observer mission.
A Florida man got a rude awakening when he found a 2m-long python in his potty, rearing its diamond-shaped head out of the toilet bowl, the <i>St Petersburg Times</i> reported on Thursday. Shannon Scavotto immediately grabbed his camera phone, snapped a few shots and called for help.
Two Turkish prison inmates, who drilled a 9cm-wide aperture between their cells enabling them to have sexual relations in prison that produced a child, received four-month sentences for damaging public property, press reports said on Sunday. The pair managed to drive the hole through their concrete communal cell wall.
Forty-six Thai students have been banned from the military for life after they tried to cheat in an army entrance examination by concealing cellphones in their shoes, an official said on Monday. Army spokesperson Colonel Acar Tiproch said the students were found with phones in the soles of their shoes and pagers under their clothes.