The death toll from a fierce clash sparked by an Islamist insurgent attack on a Ugandan base in Mogadishu rose to 18 on Tuesday, witnesses and officials said. Late on Monday, a large group of insurgents attacked a major base in the Somali capital housing a Ugandan contingent of African Union peacekeepers.
A Japanese brewery on Tuesday said it was planning the first "space beer", using offspring of barley once stored at the International Space Station. Researchers said the project was part of efforts to prepare for a future in which humans spend extended periods of time in space — and might like a cold beer after a space walk.
On a vast rubbish-strewn field in a mining area east of Johannesburg, hundreds of destitute Africans who have fled their makeshift homes in nearby slums shiver in the morning cold. The land, covered in white tents donated by aid groups, resembles the all-too-familiar refugee camps seen across this violence-hit continent.
The University of the Free State’s handling of the Reitz saga has not contributed to reconciliation, the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) said on Tuesday. FF Plus leader in the Free State Abrie Oosthuizen said the decision by the university to close the Reitz residence was an act of subservience to the African National Congress.
Eskom has no power cuts planned, the power utility said on Monday. However, demand and supply remained tight and any technical difficulties could result in emergency cuts, said spokesperson Fani Zulu. ”One you have technical problems, they quickly take you to load-shedding,” he said.
Somali gunmen hijacked a Dutch-owned ship as it travelled from Kenya’s Mombasa port to Romania in the latest act of piracy off the lawless Horn of Africa nation’s coast, a maritime official said on Tuesday. The MV Amiya Scan, managed by the Dutch Reider Shipping BV, was seized on Sunday while it passed through the Gulf of Aden.
South Africa’s biggest cellphone operator, Vodacom, reported a rise in annual profit as it boosted subscriber numbers, parent company Telkom said on Tuesday. Telkom, Africa’s largest fixed-line telephone operator, said Vodacom had increased its total subscribers by 12,7% to 34-million in the year ended March.
Springbok captain John Smit joined the Springbok training session in Stellenbosch on Monday morning just hours after stepping off the plane from France, where he had been playing for Top 14 club Clermont. The arrival of Smit was greeted with great relief by Springbok coach Peter de Villiers. ”We could not do our planning fully without him,” De Villiers explained.
World leaders are to meet next week for urgent talks aimed at preventing tens of millions of the world’s poor dying of hunger as a result of soaring food prices. The summit in Rome is expected to pledge immediate aid to poor countries threatened by malnutrition as well as charting longer-term strategies for improving food production.
A former senior manager at Siemens on Monday admitted building up an elaborate system of slush funds and shell firms at the request of his superiors to help Europe’s biggest technology group win overseas contracts through bribes. Reinhard Siekaczek told a Munich court that he had informed his entire divisional board about the system.