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The initial impressions of the Democratic Alliance’s observers to Zimbabwe’s March 31 elections so far have been alarming, party leader Tony Leon said on Friday. Writing in his weekly newsletter on the DA’s website, he said the observers reported widespread intimidation of opposition members and supporters.
Rumours that a witch has been visiting homes in parts of Delhi and is behind several deaths are creating a scare in the Indian capital, it was reported on Friday. So strong are the rumours in Sagarpur and adjoining areas of outer Delhi that a woman ringing a doorbell and asking for an onion runs the risk of being lynched.
Western Cape police were on Friday hoping someone will come forward with information on the murder of University of Stellenbosch student Inge Lotz. ”Nothing was taken, there was no forced entry and there are no leads,” Superintendent Billy Jones said. ”We are relying on someone to come forward with information.”
Santam Risk Finance, a wholly-owned subsidiary of short-term insurance group Santam, on Friday announced that it has concluded a deal with Kagiso Treasury Services — partly owned by Kagiso Trust Investments — to sell a third of the company to Kagiso. As an integral part of the transaction, Santam has acquired the Nova Group.
Somalia’s transitional leaders met in Nairobi on Friday in a bid to restore order to a heated parliamentary debate over a controversial peacekeeping mission to their anarchic country that degenerated into a bloody brawl. A spokesperson said President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed had called for political dialogue and harmony.
More than half of all Ethiopian children are stunted, according to a government report on the state of the country’s health released on Thursday. One in 10 children are described as ”wasted”, and just under half as underweight due to poor diet and malnutrition, said the report issued by Ethiopia’s health ministry.
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is planning to cut 1 500 jobs in news and programmes in a second wave of staff cuts, according to reports on Friday. The corporation’s governors are believed to have approved the cuts, expected to lead to savings of around 200-million pounds (-million).
The Israeli nuclear whistleblower, Mordechai Vanunu, is facing another term in prison after he was charged on Thursday with breaching a gag order imposed on his release from an 18-year sentence last April. Israeli prosecutors laid 22 charges against Vanunu at a Jerusalem magistrate’s court for allegedly exposing nuclear secrets in interviews with the foreign press.
The McCartney sisters emerged from a meeting with United States President George Bush on Thursday claiming to have his ”100% support” for their quest to bring their brother’s killers to justice. The meeting, at the St Patrick’s Day reception, lasted only a few minutes and the family decided not to hand over a dossier on Robert McCartney’s murder outside a Belfast bar in January as they had planned.
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Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court has thrown out a plea by a group representing more than three million expatriates demanding the right to vote in the March 31 parliamentary elections, a state-run daily reported on Friday. There are an estimated 3,5-million Zimbabweans living abroad.