Iraqi security forces killed 39 ”terrorists” in a fierce battle in the western Sunni province of al-Anbar on Tuesday, a top Iraqi official told the media. Brigadier General Abdel Karim Khalaf, director of the operations centre in the Interior Ministry, said seven other militants were arrested, including some Arab nationals.
The South African Cabinet agreed on Tuesday to extend the deployment of South African National Defence Force (SANDF) soldiers in various peacekeeping missions on the African continent. The deployments include 750 SANDF personnel in Sudan under the banner of the African Union Mission in Sudan.
Construction of Cape Town’s Green Point Stadium got off to a symbolic start on Tuesday when city mayor Helen Zille and Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool turned the first sods. The ceremony took place on the Metropolitan golf course where the 68 000-seat stadium is to be built.
Up to 30 people, at least half of them foreign al-Qaeda-linked militants, have been killed in two days of fighting with Pakistani tribesmen near the Afghan border, a military spokesperson said on Tuesday. A battle between foreign militants, most of them Uzbeks, and the area’s ethnic Pashtun tribesmen erupted on March 6.
Beijing will adopt emergency measures shutting down the capital’s industry if pollution threatens to disrupt next year’s Olympic Games, organising committee chief Liu Qi said on Tuesday. Poor air quality constitutes a serious problem for the August 8 to 24 Games next year in Beijing, one of the world’s most polluted cities.
The Supreme Court of Appeal on Tuesday dismissed an appeal by two rapists against their convictions and sentences for gang-raping a teenager 24 years ago. The attack took place in 1983 at the home of a friend of the teenager in Wynberg, Cape Town, when the men were 18 years old.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, the global nuclear watchdog, is cooperating with South Africa to develop a security plan ahead of the 2010 Soccer World Cup to avert any ”dirty bomb” attack, a government official said on Tuesday. Tselio Maqubela, South Africa’s chief nuclear director, said security at existing nuclear facilities met international standards.
South Africa has the third freest economy in sub-Saharan Africa and is ranked the 52nd most free in the world, the 2007 Index of Economic Freedom has found. Mauritius and Botswana led the sub-Saharan scores in the 13th Heritage Foundation-Wall Street Journal index report, which measured 157 countries across 10 economic freedom levels.
Software giant Microsoft on Wednesday launched a string of lawsuits in the United States and Britain against ”cybersquatters” who register internet site names in the hope of a quick buck. The US company said it had filed or amended four civil suits in the US and launched five new cases in Britain.
More than 20 Mozambican drug mules serving time in Brazil will soon be transferred to finish their sentences in Mozambique, thanks to the recent approval of a prison transfer agreement, Vista News reported on Tuesday. This was revealed by Justice Minister Esperanca Machavela in an interview published this week.