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Man Utd: Rio Ferdinand identifies first mistake Amorim has made

Manchester United legend, Rio Ferdinand has suggested that new manager, Ruben Amorim may have made a mistake in not keeping former interim manager, Ruud van Nistelrooy at the club. Amorim arrived at Man United on Monday to officially take charge at Old Trafford having been named Erik ten Hag’s permanent replacement a few weeks ago. […]

Man Utd: Rio Ferdinand identifies first mistake Amorim has made




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EPL: You’d be mad – Glen Johnson advises Chelsea star against leaving club for Man Utd

Former Chelsea defender, Glen Johnson has told forward, Christopher Nkunku that he would be ‘mad’ to leave Stamford Bridge amid rumours Manchester United are interested in signing him. Johnson believes Nkunku can start to have a big impact at Chelsea if he stays fit. Nkunku joined Chelsea from RB Leipzig in 2023. The Frenchman made […]

EPL: You’d be mad – Glen Johnson advises Chelsea star against leaving club for Man Utd




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Jabulani Khumalo hits back at Dali Mpofu’s MK Party origins claims, says Floyd Shivambu should have stayed at EFF




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Tshwane Mayor Nasiphi Moya takes immediate action to address water shortages




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Morero fires corruption-accused Kabelo Gwamanda, replaces him with PA’s Tebogo Nkonkou




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KZN police arrest suspect for Richards Bay businessman’s murder




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DA welcomes Gwamanda’s expulsion; cautions against PA’s Tebogo Nkonkou conduct




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Jacob Zuma appoints Floyd Shivambu as MK Party secretary-general




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Mauritius votes in poll clouded by phone-tapping scandal




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KZN police arrest seven suspects for Kokstad businesswoman’s kidnapping




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WATCH: Police arrest taxi hitmen at Mall of Africa




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‘It’s an honour’: Floyd Shivambu humbled by Jacob Zuma’s confidence in appointing him MK Party secretary-general




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Weekend wrap: Dog thrown from airport balcony, man’s fight for qualification and VW responds to theft of Amarok claim




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Woman in court after she allegedly attacked and murdered 82-year-old gogo




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Woman, 20, arrested after body of newborn found in dustbin at a student residence in East London




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Donald Trump announces immigration official Tom Homan as ‘border czar’




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SAPS confirms French woman who allegedly threw dog from third floor at OR Tambo Airport at a health facility




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WANTED: Police are looking for man allegedly linked to the murder of Fredville Taxi Association chairperson




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Majodina's mischaracterisation of Gauteng's water crisis ignores the root of municipal failure




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Two Ugandan nationals remanded in custody after trying to swindle their landlord his inheritance money




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Bitter ex-wife, who kept father away from child by falsely accusing him of rape, ordered to pay R665,000 in damages




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Thuli Madonsela pushes back against Mbalula's call for spaza shop shutdown, sparking debate on health and economy




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Trump’s victory could set back US Climate Progress, but the fight for the planet continues




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Sean 'Diddy' Combs has made a new request for bail




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Woman arrested in Limpopo after her boyfriend was stabbed to death




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To survive Zuma’s wrath, Malema must return to the ANC - ANCYL leader Collen Malatji




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Two Durban women accused of drugging and robbing a pensioner, after making him tea




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EFF condemns Solly Malatsi’s withdrawal of the SABC Bill, accuses Minister of serving white-owned media




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‘He represented clients in courts, knowing he was not an attorney’: Man arrested for contravening Legal Practice Act




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‘We need to fix what is broken’: Minister Dean Macpherson vows EPWP reforms amid allegations of abuse, corruption and exclusion




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Gauteng public schools owe close to R300 million to municipalities, DA demands accountability




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Police monitor mine exits as over a thousand illegal miners remain underground in North West




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WATCH: Joburg woman shares her harrowing ordeal of losing her hair after using box dye




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Man sentenced after he tricked his wife to travel to Sudan for holiday then left her stranded without a passport




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Daring thieves break-in at Nellmapius Clinic in Mamelodi, steal computers and other equipment




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Embattled former Joburg mayor, Kabelo Gwamanda threatens legal action as he seeks reinstatement




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Have you seen him? Hawks hunt for man accused of stealing fuel from Transnet pipeline




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WATCH: ‘Dr’ Matthew Lani still lying through his teeth or finally coming clean?




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Australian gold company confirms arrest of CEO, 2 executives in Mali

Dakar, Senagal — The CEO and two executives of Australian gold mine Resolute in Mali have been arrested while in Bamako to discuss ongoing disputes with authorities, the company confirmed Sunday. CEO Terence Holohan and his two colleagues "were in Bamako to discuss with mining and tax authorities the company's business practices in Mali generally and to make progress on ongoing claims against Resolute, which continues to claim they are unfounded," Resolute said in a statement posted on its website. "Unexpectedly, the three employees were arrested after the end of these meetings on Friday," she reported. The three executives were taken the same day to the unit specializing in the fight against corruption and economic and financial delinquency — and were placed in police custody in a case of alleged forgery and damage to public property, AFP learned Saturday from a judicial and industrial source. Four employees of the Canadian company Barrick Gold, also in dispute with the Malian authorities, were detained for several days at the end of September, then released. Foreign mining companies are subject to increased pressure from the junta that came to power by force in 2020 and pays particular attention to the juicy revenues of the mining industry. "Resolute is working to reach an agreement with the Malian government that secures the long-term future of the Syama gold mine; at the same time its top priority remains the safety and well-being of its employees," the company said. The executives benefit from the support of the embassies and consulates of the United Kingdom and other countries present in Mali, she said. Resolute holds 80% of the shares in the subsidiary that owns the Syama mine, with the remaining 20% in the hands of the Malian state, according to the company's website. The Malian authorities have made the fight against corruption and the restoration of national sovereignty over natural resources their mantras. Mali, one of the poorest countries in the world, faces jihadis and a multidimensional crisis, and is also one of the leading gold producers in Africa. Gold contributes to a quarter of the national budget and three quarters of export revenues. The increased pressure on foreign companies coincided with the junta's strategic pivot toward Russia.




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Taiwan businessman Tsao to sue Chinese officials over sanctions

TAIPEI, TAIWAN — Taiwanese businessman Robert Tsao said on Monday he would sue in a Taiwan court senior Chinese officials over sanctions they had placed on him, saying he was seeking to counter China's intimidation of lawful activity. China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, last month said it would punish and sanction Tsao, the retired founder of chipmaker UMC, for alleged criminal and pro-Taiwan independence activities. China's Taiwan Affairs Office said the "Black Bear Academy" that Tsao has helped fund was seeking to incite separatism that would endanger cross-strait ties. Tsao, one of Taiwan's richest men who has pledged to provide millions to two civilian defense training programs, told a press conference that China was threatening the lawful holding of political views in Taiwan, and his personal safety. The lawsuit will be lodged in a Taipei court against Song Tao, head of China's Taiwan Affairs Office, and also the office's spokesperson Chen Binhua. Taiwan courts have no jurisdiction in China and senior Chinese officials do not visit the island. China's Taiwan Affairs Office did not respond to a request for comment. Cheng Wen-lung, one of Tsao's lawyers, said they understood that neither Song nor Chen would come to Taiwan and there would be no way of enforcing any judgment, but the case was about sending a message to Beijing, given it has been seeking to use legal means to put pressure on Taiwanese persons it does not like. "Legally, we have to do this," Cheng said. "Taiwan is in a difficult spot, but we have to work hard. You cannot not do anything." Tsao's team is also looking at suing in a U.S. court under that country's Alien Tort Claims Act. China's announcement against Tsao came as the country's military staged a day of war games around Taiwan it said were a warning to "separatist acts." Taiwan's government rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims. UMC says Tsao has nothing to do with the company any longer having retired a decade ago.




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Taiwan closes exploding pagers case, says not made by Taiwanese firms

Taipei, Taiwan — Taiwan on Monday said it had closed a probe into pagers that exploded in Lebanon in September and caused a deadly blow to Iran-backed Hezbollah, saying no Taiwanese citizens or companies were involved. Israeli media reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed responsibility for the attack during a cabinet meeting, telling ministers that senior defense officials and political figures were opposed to the detonation of the pagers but that he went ahead with the operation. Security sources have previously said the pagers carried the name of Taiwan-based Gold Apollo, a company which has asserted that it did not make them. Taiwan's government has also said the pagers were not made in Taiwan. Taipei prosecutors, who were investigating the case, said in a statement the AR-924 pager model that exploded in Lebanon was manufactured, traded, and shipped by a firm called Frontier Group Entity, and made outside of Taiwan. They added, however, that Gold Apollo had authorized the company to use the Apollo trademark. "There is no evidence indicating that any domestic manufacturers or individuals were accomplices in the relevant explosions, violating the Counter-Terrorism Financing Act, or engaging in other illegal activities," the prosecutors said in a statement. "No concrete evidence of criminal activity has been discovered in this case, nor have any specific individuals been implicated in any criminal activity, following a comprehensive investigation." Prosecutors have previously confirmed that they questioned Gold Apollo's president and founder Hsu Ching-kuang and a woman called Teresa Wu, the sole employee of a company called Apollo Systems Ltd. In their statement, the prosecutors said Wu acted as a liaison with Frontier, but there was no evidence she "had prior knowledge or participated in any conspiracy or collaboration related to the explosion incidents." The prosecutors said there was some information they did not know, including the exact identities of the Frontier employees Wu communicated with. It said one person was called "T" and was presumably the head of Frontier, while another was called "M" and was presumably the sales director. Gold Apollo told Reuters it had also just seen the prosecutor’s statement, and that it was not immediately able to comment further.




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New Zealand's leaders formally apologize to survivors of abuse in state and church care

wellington, new zealand — New Zealand's Prime Minister Christopher Luxon made a “formal and unreserved” apology in Parliament on Tuesday for the widespread abuse, torture and neglect of hundreds of thousands of children and vulnerable adults in care. “It was horrific. It was heartbreaking. It was wrong. And it should never have happened,” Luxon said, as he spoke to lawmakers and a public gallery packed with survivors of the abuse. An estimated 200,000 people in state, foster and faith-based care suffered “unimaginable” abuse over a period of seven decades, a blistering report released in July said at the end of the largest inquiry ever undertaken in New Zealand. They were disproportionately Māori, New Zealand’s Indigenous people. “For many of you it changed the course of your life, and for that, the government must take responsibility,” Luxon said. He said he was apologizing for previous governments too. In foster and church care — as well as in state-run institutions, including hospitals and residential schools — vulnerable people “should have been safe and treated with respect, dignity and compassion," he added. “But instead, you were subjected to horrific abuse and neglect and, in some cases, torture.” The findings of the six-year investigation believed to be the widest-ranging of comparable probes worldwide were a “national disgrace,” the inquiry's report said. New Zealand's investigation followed two decades of such inquiries around the globe as nations struggle to reckon with authorities’ transgressions against children removed from their families and placed in care. Of 650,000 children and vulnerable adults in New Zealand's state, foster, and church care between 1950 and 2019 — in a country that today has a population of 5 million — nearly a third endured physical, sexual, verbal or psychological abuse. Many more were exploited or neglected. “We will never know that true number,” Chris Hipkins, the leader of the opposition, told Parliament. “Many people entering into state and faith-based institutions were undocumented. Records were incomplete, they've gone missing, and in some cases, yes, they were deliberately destroyed.” In response to the findings, New Zealand’s government agreed for the first time that historical treatment of some children in a notorious state-run hospital amounted to torture — a claim successive administrations had rejected. “I am deeply sorry that New Zealand did not do better by you. I am sorry you were not believed when you came forward to report your abuse,” Luxon said. “I am sorry that many abusers were not made to face justice which meant that other people experienced abuse that could have been prevented.” His government was working on 28 of the inquiry's 138 recommendations, Luxon said, although he did not yet have concrete details on financial redress, which the inquiry had exhorted since 2021 and said could run to billions of dollars. Luxon was decried by some survivors and advocates earlier Tuesday for not divulging compensation plans alongside the apology. He told Parliament a single redress system would be established in 2025. He did not, however, suggest a figure for the amount the government expected to pay. “There will be a big bill, but it's nothing compared to the debt we owe those survivors and it must not be the reason for any further delay,” said Hipkins, the opposition leader. Survivors began to arrive at Parliament hours before the apology, having won spots in the public gallery — which only seats about 200 people — by ballot. Some were reluctant to accept the state's words, because they said the scale of the horror was not yet fully understood by lawmakers and public servants. Jeering was so loud during an apology from the country's solicitor-general that her speech was inaudible. Others called out or left the room in tears while senior public servants from relevant health and welfare agencies spoke before Luxon's remarks. Survivors invited to give speeches were required to do so before Luxon's apology — rather than in response to it, said Tu Chapman, one of those asked to speak. “Right now I feel alone and in utter despair at the way in which this government has undertaken the task of acknowledging all survivors,” she told a crowd at Parliament. The abuse "ripped families and communities apart, trapping many into a life of prison, incarceration, leaving many uneducated,” said Keith Wiffin — a survivor of abuse in a notorious state-run boys' home. “It has tarred our international reputation as an upholder of human rights, something this nation likes to dine out on.” The inquiry's recommendations included seeking apologies from state and church leaders, among them Pope Francis. It also endorsed creating offices to prosecute abusers and enact redress, renaming streets and monuments dedicated to abusers, reforming civil and criminal law, rewriting the child welfare system and searching for unmarked graves at psychiatric facilities. Its writers were scathing about how widely the abuse — and the identities of many abusers — were known about for years, with nothing done to stop it. “This has meant you have had to re-live your trauma over and over again,” said Luxon. “Agencies should have done better and must commit to doing so in the future.” He did not concede that public servants or ministers in his government who had denied state abuse was widespread when they served in previous administrations should lose their jobs. Luxon has also rejected suggestions by survivors that policies he has enacted which disproportionately target Māori — such as crackdowns on gangs and the establishment of military-style boot camps for young offenders — undermine his government's regret about the abuse. Māori are over-represented in prisons and gangs. In 2023, 68% of children in state care were Māori, although they are less than 20% of New Zealand's population. “It's not enough to say sorry,” said Fa’afete Taito, a survivor of violent abuse at another state-run home, and a former gang member. “It's what you do to heal the wounds of your actions and make sure it never happens again that really counts.”




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Ishiba survived rare runoff to remain Japan's prime minister but will face turmoil  

TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, battered in parliamentary elections last month, has survived a rare runoff vote against the opposition to remain the country's leader but he still faces turmoil ahead. One of his top priorities is dealing with the aftermath of a major corruption scandal in the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party, in which dozens of lawmakers from the party are alleged to have pocketed profits from event ticket sales as kickbacks. Ishiba also now has a much-emboldened, opposition eager to push through policies long stymied by the LDP. Support ratings for his Cabinet have fallen to about 30%. Here is a look at what's happening in Japan's tumultuous politics, and what it might mean for Ishiba and his government as they prepare to navigate a second term of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. Why did the vote in parliament take place? A parliamentary vote for a new leader is mandatory within 30 days of a general election. In the past that was mostly ignored as the head of the LDP usually enjoyed a majority in the Lower House, the more powerful of Japan’s two-chamber parliament. This time, though, because Ishiba's LDP and its junior coalition partner lost its majority in the recent election, the runoff on Monday couldn't be avoided — the first in 30 years. What's next for the prime minister? Opposition's top leader, Yoshihiko Noda, has noted that nearly half of all lower house steering committees are now headed by the opposition. That’s a huge change from the pre-election domination of the LDP, which controlled all but three of the 27 committees. “We are going to have a new landscape in Japanese politics,” Noda said. Twelve of the committees in key areas, including budget, political reforms, national security and legal affairs, will be headed by Noda’s Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and two other main opposition groups. What's certain is that the era of LDP’s one-sided rule is over, for now, and the opposition has a chance to achieve policies long opposed by the ruling conservatives, including on issues like gender equality and diversity. Noda last Friday said a legal committee that is now headed by his party’s gender equality chief, Chinami Nishimura, is aiming to achieve a civil code revision to allow married couples the option of keeping separate surnames. That change has been stalled by LDP conservatives for 30 years despite widespread support by the public and a United Nations panel on discrimination against women. Who is the opposition kingmaker? Yuichiro Tamaki is head of the conservative Democratic Party for the People, which quadrupled its seats to 28 in the election. The vote elevated his party from a fringe group to a major player. He is now being cast as a potential key to Ishiba’s survival. A Harvard-educated former Finance Ministry bureaucrat, the 55-year-old Tamaki has seen success by pushing for the raising of a basic tax-free income allowance and an increase of take-home wages. His messages on social media have appealed to younger voters, who have long been ignored by LDP policies catering to conservative elderly. Ishiba apparently seems to find Tamaki’s 28-member DPP an attractive partner to secure a majority. The two parties, which have common ground in some areas — including support for greater nuclear energy use and a stronger military — have started policy talks. Ishiba met with both Tamaki and Noda on Monday but Tamaki may be cautious about moving too close to a scandal-plagued LDP ahead of another election next year. Noda is struggling to form a unified opposition to force a change of government, which he says is his next goal. What does this mean for Ishiba's government? For Ishiba, the “hung parliament” requires him to win over opposition forces so he can push his policies. While considered unstable, it might also provide a chance for a more consensus-based policy making process, experts say. “I’m taking the current situation positively as a chance to get our opposition voice heard more carefully,” Tamaki said. Ishiba also faces challenges of restoring unity in his own party. A number of senior LDP lawmakers are waiting to overthrow Ishiba, though their priority is to resolidify their footholds, not infighting — and nobody is eager to do damage control at this difficult time anyway. “The [Ishiba] administration is quite unstable. ... He will have to get opposition parties' cooperation every time he wants to get a bill approved, which could stall policies,” said University of Tokyo political science professor Yu Uchiyama. And even if Ishiba survives politically in the coming months, there could be a call for his replacement ahead of next elections. “Japan is likely to return to a period of short-lived government,” Uchiyama said. How does this affect Japan's diplomacy, security and ties with Trump? Ishiba congratulated Trump hours after his victory and in a brief telephone conversation, they agreed to closely work together to further elevate their alliance. While experts say Trump understands the importance of U.S.-Japan relations, he may — as he did in his first administration — pressure Japan to pay more for the cost of 50,000 U.S. troops in Japan or to buy more expensive American weapons. Trump's possible tariff proposals could also hurt Japanese exporters. Ishiba on Saturday renewed his pledge to pursue an ongoing military buildup plan under a strategy that calls for a counter-strike capability with long-range cruise-missiles. He has long advocated a more equal Japan-U.S. security alliance but could face difficulty pursuing those plans. ‘’It will be a fantastic experiment to see if a national unity government can get Japan through until the next election,” said Michael Cucek, an expert in Japanese politics at Temple University in Japan.