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/ 30 November 2005
Omar Bongo’s re-election as Gabon’s President led to overnight riots, clashes and arrests in the economic capital of Port-Gentil after opposition claims of fraud, witnesses said on Wednesday. Scores of youths went on the rampage in the port city in the south-west of the oil-rich Central African country.
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/ 30 November 2005
A Los Angeles taxi driver who reunited an absent-minded passenger with 000 in diamonds that he left behind has now received his reward — 000 and a diamond bracelet. Driver Haider Sediqi, an Afghan immigrant, said the man’s thank-you note meant just as much to him.
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/ 30 November 2005
The White House, in its most detailed public plan yet for success in Iraq, said on Wednesday it expects to reduce United States forces there in 2006, but warned the country is likely to face violence ”for many years to come”. The White House released the strategy to set the stage for a speech a few hours later by President George Bush.
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/ 30 November 2005
China’s central government on Wednesday blamed managers of a north-eastern mine for a huge explosion that killed at least 150 people, saying obvious signs of danger emerged days before the blast. As rescue efforts wound down, the government’s work-safety watchdog turned its focus to the cause of the blast.
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/ 30 November 2005
A Zimbabwe court has handed down its first decision based on a recent constitutional amendment banning white farmers from legally challenging land grabs, state media said on Wednesday. A high court in Zimbabwe has allowed three black farmers back onto a farm from which they had been evicted by the white owners, overturning its earlier decision.
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/ 30 November 2005
The speaker of Zambia’s National Assembly on Wednesday issued a stern warning to the public not to interfere in parliamentary proceedings. The warning followed the publication by the Oasis Forum, a powerful alliance of civil society organisations and church groups, of the names of lawmakers who voted down a citizen’s petition calling for a new Constitution.
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/ 30 November 2005
The deputy chief of Uganda’s notorious Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) said on Wednesday the rebels are ready to talk peace, breaking the group’s penchant for secrecy and drawing a cautious response from the goverment. Vincent Otti, the number two of elusive LRA supremo Joseph Kony, said his boss had authorised him to make the call for a negotiated end to the brutal nearly 20-year war.
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/ 30 November 2005
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Botswana has shown that developing countries can successfully distribute anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment in their public health-care systems, the country’s Department of Health said on Wednesday. The country has also exceeded its patient enrolment targets in the ARV programme, Health Minister Sheila Tlou said.
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/ 30 November 2005
Agreeing to a plea bargain in the case of convicted Swiss sex tourist Peter Zimmerman was the best that could be done under the circumstances, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said on Wednesday. Zimmerman was fined R10 000 and given a one-year suspended sentence for five years.
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/ 30 November 2005
South Africa recorded a deficit of R5,544-billion for its trade with non-Southern African Customs Union trading partners in October, after a R3,691-billion deficit in September, according to the latest Customs and Excise figures released on Wednesday. The trade balance was expected to be a R2-billion deficit, according to a survey of economists.