IN BRIEF MYSTERY DISEASE IDENTIFIED MEDICAL experts on Tuesday said the mysterious illness that has killed hundreds of people in flood-hit East Africa is Rift Valley fever. The fever is spread by mosquitoes, sand flies and during the slaughter of infected animals, said Dr. Douglas Klaucke, acting World Health Organisation representative in Kenya. However, it is feared that the outbreak may also involve other diseases. “We think there are other things going on as well,” Klaucke said. Malaria and severe diarrhea also may have killed some of more than 300 people who have died in north-eastern Kenya since mid-December, he added.
DIPLOMATS APPOINTED FOREIGN Affairs Minister Alfred Nzo on Tuesday announced the appointment by President Nelson Mandela of Mbulelo Rakwena as South Africa’s High Commissioner to Mauritius and Pieter Swanepoel as ambassador to Mexico. A former journalist, Rakwena has extensive experience in industrial relations, conflict resolution, and media communication and publicity. Swanepoel was ambassador to Portugal and is director of departmental and ministerial media liaison in the foreign affairs department.
NEW CAPE BOMBING GANG-related violence around Cape Town continued on Tuesday when an explosive device, possibly a pipe bomb, was hurled at a house in Sybrand Park on the Cape Peninsula in the early hours, causing damage valued at about R20 000. Police spokesman Superintendent Wicus Holtzhausen said a number of shots were also fired at the house and two cars parked outside. He added that the owner told police two people in the house at the time fired shots at the attackers. The motive for the attack is unknown, and no arrests have been made.
UGANDAN SECURITY A FAMILY AFFAIR UGANDAN President Yoweri Museveni has appointed his brother, Major General Salim Saleh, as defence minister, military sources said on Tuesday. Saleh was previously Museveni’s adviser on military affairs in northern Uganda, which is facing incursions by guerrillas allegedly backed by the Sudanese government. Museveni also appointed a cousin, Brigadier James Kazini, as military chief of staff after sacking Brigadier Ali Kazini. Museveni at the weekend sacked the his army commander, Major General Mugisha Muntu, replacing him with Jeje Odongo, previously minister of state for defence in charge of training.
US TOURIST MURDERED POLICE on Tuesday released the name of an American tourist whose body was found with that of his companion at the Monwabisi beach resort on the False Bay coast on Monday. The couple were shot execution style and their bodies dumped several kilometres from each other. The dead man was Edward Keim III, 33, of Fort Lauderdale. His companion was identified as Marilese van der Merwe, 28. Keim and Van der Merwe, previously of Killarney, Johannesburg, were last seen alive at Cape Town’s Waterfront at about 12.30am on Monday morning. Their bodies were discovered a few kilometres from the burnt out shell of their BMW, which police established Van der Merwe had been driving.
LIBERIAN PAPER BANNED LIBERIAN authorities have ordered the capital’s only printing house to stop publishing the independent and often outspoken bi-weekly Heritage newspaper, its editor said on Tuesday. Although a letter to the printers from solicitor-general Theophilus Gould gave no specific reason for the gagging order, it is presumed to result from a Heritage article criticising the perfunctory departure next month of the Nigerian-led regional peacekeeping force, Ecomog, deployed in Liberia since 1990.