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While you were sleeping: 13 April 2016

While you were sleeping: 13 April 2016

Terror alert in Dutch airport, Syrian ceasefire talks stumble, and Led Zeppelin to go to court.

“Stories may well be lies, but they are good lies that say true things, and which can sometimes pay the rent.” 

– Neil Gaiman

Story of the Day

Mmusi’s Way: Targeting Zuma to break the ANC monolith 
It has not yet been a year since Mmusi Maimane took up leadership of the Democratic Alliance (DA) from Helen Zille. Maimane has had a hell run with a storm over racism lashing his party while waging war with the ANC, primarily over the leadership of President Jacob Zuma. The Gupta controversy and Constitutional Court judgment on the Nkandla matter has created a crisis in the ANC. Opposition parties are being put to the test on whether they can outmanoeuvre the ANC and also draw support away from the ruling party. But Maimane says he has bigger ambitions than only dislodging Zuma. By RANJENI MUNUSAMY.


While you were sleeping

Schiphol Airport on terror lockdown
Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport was shut down for several hours on Wednesday night. A single suspect was arrested as counter-terrorism security officials swept through the airport. Although no explosives were detected on the suspect, officials will remain on high alert throughout Thursday.
Read More

Syrian ceasefire talks enter round two
Geneva-based talks have resumed amid fighting in Aleppo. Despite a fragile truce, it appears as though all sides are expecting escalation. The regime is responsible for exacerbating this conflict, indicating its willingness to launch another Russian-backed offensive rather than talk peace.
Read More

US strikes militants in Somalia
Two drone strikes in southern Somalia have killed at least 12 Al-Shabaab militants. The strikes were part of a ‘defensive’ action to protect local Somali and US forces. Further details on prominent targets have not yet been released.
Read More

Stairway to Heaven to go to trial
Led Zeppelin is to defend their iconic song’s originality before a jury. Lawyers for Spirit, a band Led Zeppelin used to open for, are contesting that the song was lifted straight from one of their own tracks.
Read More

In Numbers

244
The number of shows that have started and finished on Fox since the first airing of The Simpsons.

Facts of the Day

Today in 1997 saw Tiger Woods win the Masters Tournament. He was also the youngest to do so.

Fact of the day: Einstein and his wife had a daughter in 1902. The existence of ‘Lieserl’  was only discovered in 1986, and her whereabouts/life is largely a mystery.


Weather & Financial Data

BFN: min: 15° max: 27°, cloudy
CPT: min: 15° max: 23°, cloudy
DBN: min: 21° max: 33°, cloudy
EL: min: 21° max: 34°, cloudy
JHB: min: 13° max: 28°, cloudy
KIM: min: 17° max: 29°, cloudy
NLP: min: 11° max: 29°, sunny
PMB: min: 13° max: 31°, cloudy
PKN: min: 12° max: 28°, sunny
PE: min: 18° max: 26°, sunny
PTA: min: 14° max: 28°, cloudy
Oil=$44.60 Gold=$1,258.06 Platinum=$1,000.50
R/$=14.72 R/€=16.75 R/£=21.01 $/€=1.14
JSE All Share=52,059.76 DJIA=17,730.05 FTSE 100=6,242.39: Source

Now on Daily Maverick

FEATURES
Photo: Leader of the opposition party Democratic Alliance (DA) Mmusi
Maimane speaks during a debate over the removal of the president in
Parliament, Cape Town, 5 April 2016. EPA/NIC BOTHMA Mmusi’s Way: Targeting Zuma to break the ANC monolith 
By Mmusi Maimane
Photo: President Jacob Zuma and ANC's Gauteng Provincial Chairperson
Paul Mashatile. (Jordi Matas) ANC Gauteng: Do the right thing, President Zuma 
By Greg Nicolson
Photo: Forgive us, Michelangelo. Our Father who art in Nkandla: Women’s League second-guess SA clergy’s interpretation of Christianity 
By Marianne Thamm
Photo: South African President Jacob Zuma (C) along with KwaZulu-Natal
Premier, Dr Zweli Mkhize (R) and Bhambatha Regional chair of the ANC,
Godfrey Mavundla (L) during an election rally in Greytown, South Africa, 11
May 2011. EPA/REINHARDT HARTZENBERG Zuma’s KwaZulu-Natal support: Still strong and deep 
By CYRIL MADLALA
Photos by Masixole Feni. GroundUp Report: Cash crops poisoned in Pondoland 
By GroundUp
Photo: South African President, Jacob Zuma during the State Of the
Nation Address in Cape Town, South Africa, 12 February 2015. EPA/RODGER
BOSCH/POOL Parliament: President Zuma responds to written questions, provides no answers 
By Marianne Thamm
Photo: Some of 70,000 supporters cheer as they gather during the final
African National Congress (ANC) election rally in Soweto, South Africa, 15
May 2011. EPA/KIM LUDBROOK State of preparedness for local elections? Clear as mud. 
By Marianne Merten
Photo: Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) voting officials prepare
a voting station for some of the millions of South Africans to vote in the
early morning light at a church in the poor slum of Alexandra Township for
the local elections, Johannesburg, South Africa, 18 May 2011. EPA/KIM
LUDBROOK ConCourt papers: IEC asks for grace period until 2020 
By Marianne Merten
Photo: Allister Coetzee looks on after being unveiled as the South
Africa Springboks’ new rugby coach in Randburg, outside Johannesburg,
April 12, 2016. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko New coach, same old challenges: Allister Coetzee takes the reins 
By Antoinette Muller
Photo: A boy looks out of a window as refugees from Syria and Iraq
board a bus transferring them to a new organised hosting facility in Attica
from the port of Piraeus, Greece, 11 April 2016, where almost 5,000
migrants and refugees have been staying for more than a month. EPA/SIMELA
PANTZARTZI ICG Op-Ed: The Global Refugee Crisis, a call to principled action 
By International Crisis Group
Photo: Guatemalan soldiers present alleged ‘international drug
trafficking leader’ Efrain Cifuentes Gonzalez (C) to the media, at an
Air Force base in Guatemala City, Guatemala, 07 November 2014. EPA/SAUL
MARTINEZ ICG: Lessons from Latin America 
By International Crisis Group
(L to R) Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Japan's
Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, US Secretary of State John Kerry, British
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond and Canada's Foreign Minister Stephane
Dion offer a silent prayer at the Memorial Cenotaph in the Peace Memorial
Park for the victims of the 1945 atomic bombing, on the sidelines of the G7
Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Hiroshima on 11 April 2016. Kerry and other
G7 foreign ministers made the landmark visit to the memorial site for the
world's first nuclear attack in Hiroshima.
Kazuhiro NOGI / POOL / AFP While you were sleeping: 12 April 2016 
By John Stupart

OPINIONS

mbuyiseni-ndlozi.jpg Zuma and the Constitutional Crisis 
By Mbuyiseni Ndlozi
Bantu-Holomisa-for-column.jpg ANC intransigence divides the nation 
By BANTU HOLOMISA
Pierre de vos Nkandla impeachment: Opposition parties have limited options 
By Pierre de Vos
paul-hoffman.jpg To which ‘African way’ do you refer, President Zuma? 
By Paul Hoffman
Gallery

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