A man who admitted to taking nine Pretoria News advertising staff hostage on April 25 last year was acquitted on Friday on a charge of attempted murder. Lionel George, of Danville, west of Pretoria, earlier pleaded guilty in the city’s regional court to charges of unlawful possession of a firearm and two rounds of ammunition.
A bomb ripped through a crowded bus just outside Sri Lanka’s capital on Friday, killing at least 24 passengers and wounding more than 50, police said. The bomb exploded inside a privately owned bus at the Piliyandala bus station, a police spokesperson said, adding that victims were rushed to a nearby hospital.
The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) will monitor investigations into the cause of the deaths of nearly 80 Eastern Cape babies, the body announced on Friday. Earlier this week, reports emerged that 78 children from the Eastern Cape had died as a result of diarrhoea allegedly caused by contaminated water.
World Book Day on April 23 saw entries open for the 14th short story competition run by Anglo Platinum and Beulah Thumbadoo & Associates.
California suffered its first deadly attack by a great white shark in almost 50 years yesterday when a swimmer was killed 50m from a popular beach near San Diego as he took part in a triathlon training session. David Martin, a 66-year-old retired veterinarian, was swimming with a group around 22km north of San Diego early on Friday when the shark attacked.
Germany’s Finance Minister, Peer Steinbrück, blamed the Bank of England on Friday for the collapse of Northern Rock and the loss of 2 000 jobs, savaging the central bank for not pumping enough liquidity into money markets last year. Unlike the central banks of the United States and European Union, the Bank of England failed to support the banking sector with vital loans, Steinbrück said.
Rising food prices have developed into a global crisis, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Friday. Concerns about food security mounted this week as rice prices hit records in Asia, and the United States warned that staples for the world’s hungry were getting much more expensive.
An estimated 8 000 people have fled Mogadishu since last weekend’s clashes, the heaviest this year in the Somali capital, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said on Friday. About 700 000 people have already fled the coastal capital over the past year, sparking one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
Measures to stem the looming food price crisis in South Africa will be put before the Cabinet next week, the National Agricultural Marketing Council (NAMC) said on Friday. A short-term solution is likely to involve more funds for the government’s social programmes to protect the poorest of the poor from the price hikes, NAMC chief executive Ronald Ramabulana said.
Angry protesters caused damage of R5-million to Daveyton Station on the East Rand on Friday morning, Metrorail said. ”Commuters torched ticket offices when a train failed between Northmead and Avenue, blocking other Johannesburg-bound trains from Daveyton,” spokesperson Sibusiso Ngomane said.