Breakfast Edition: 6 November 2015

UJ KICKS-OFF FINAL EXAMS DISPITE INCIDENTS OF VIOLENCE: Despite a fire alarm set off in a student residence last night, and more violent protest on campus yesterday, the first paper of the final exams will be written at the University of Johannesburg this morning.

Protests and disruption gained momentum on the UJ main campus in Auckland Park the past week, under the banner of the "Occupy UJ" movement, against the outsourcing of campus services like cleaning. The vice chancellor, Ihron Rensburg yesterday said he had no choice but to suspend four students - including the SRC president - in the interest of the larger student body. 

SA ELECTED TO INTERPOL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: South Africa has become the only African country - and one of only 13 countries - to be elected to the Executive Committee of Interpol: the International Criminal Police Organisation. Spokesperson for the elite crime fighting unit, the Hawks, Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi says 190 countries voted for South Africa at Interpol's General Assembly held in the Rwandan capital, Kigali the past week.

MANDELA'S GRANDSON BACK IN COURT: The 24-year-old grandson of the late former president, Nelson Mandela is expected back in the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court today. He was released on bail of R7,000 is August and can only be named once he pleads today on a charge that he raped a 15-year old girl, in the bathroom of a restaurant in Greenside.

PRESIDENT TO VISIT BUSHBUCKRIDGE: President Jacob Zuma, along with several ministers, will be visiting Bushbuckridge in Mpumalanga today as part of the Presidential Siyahlola Monitoring Programme. The area has seen several service delivery protests and residents have appealed for the government to intervene in addressing the challenges they face. Presidential spokesperson Bongani Majola says President Zuma will see first-hand what measures government is taking to address the challenges.

OBAMA'S LETTER TO SOUTH AFRICA: US President, Barack Obama yesterday moved to cut off duty-free treatment for hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of South African agricultural goods. This in response to what he calls continuing barriers to US imports. Obama sent an official notice to Congress saying that in 60 days the US will suspend that duty-free treatment granted agricultural products from South Africa, under the 2000 African Growth and Opportunity Act. Here is Obama's letter:

DRASTIC TRANSFORMATION IN SA SPORT: South Africa's sporting landscape will see drastic transformation over the next 5 to 10 years, according to Sports Minister, Fikile Mbalula. At a post-mortem of the Springbok's performance at the Rugby World Cup, Mbalula spent a lot of time addressing questions of transformation saying Coach Heyneke Meyer was well within his rights to choose the team het did for 2015 - but that in four years half of the squad must be black.  Pieter van der Merwe reports.

PICASSO SELLS FOR MILLIONS: A Picasso picture of a cabaret artist, which carries a second painting on the reverse, sold for $67.45 million in New York on Thursday, scoring a windfall for American billionaire Bill Koch. It was the top lot of the season so far, proving a savvy investment for the Republican Party donor who paid just $3 million for the canvas in 1984 and later discovered he had got two for the price of one. Sotheby's had valued the canvas, "La Gommeuse," at $60 million. It was painted in Paris in 1901 when the artist was just 19 years old and grieving the suicide of a close friend.

TERMINALLY ILL FAN GETS HIS LAST STAR WARS WISH: A terminally-ill Star Wars-fan's dying wish, to see the latest instalment of the Star Wars movie franchise film - was granted. 32-year-old Daniel Fleetwood has been a fan since he was eight or nine years old and his YouTube plight went viral. Disney decided to allow a special screening for him at his home.

JETMAN'S AMAZING STUNT: Just when you thought 2015 was a technological let-down compared to the 2015 imagined by Back to the Future, a daredevil known as Jetman demonstrated how far we have come by flying next to a passenger jet with just a jetpack.

FINANCIAL INDICATORS:

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