The Saudi Arabian security forces have arrested 110 men at a ”gay wedding” party in Jeddah, according to a Saudi online newspaper. Al-Wifaq, which has connections with the interior ministry, said the authorities had raided a wedding hall on Monday night after a tip-off and found the men — all Saudis — dancing and ”behaving like women”.
For more than 40 years, Uganda has been considered a safe haven for people fleeing violence in their homelands. It currently hosts about 230 000 nationals from neighbouring states such as Sudan, Rwanda, Somalia and Burundi — one of the largest refugee populations in Africa. But even as Uganda earns accolades for its generosity, both government and its critics agree there are problems with the refugee scheme.
Ninety percent blind in both eyes, Babe Simelane, who estimates he is 72-years old, could make out only the roughest outline of his son’s face when he died from an Aids-related illness last year, leaving two young sons. Without government assistance or a pension scheme to support him, Simelane relies on the kindness of neighbours. Although 69% of Swazis live on less than $1 a day, he envies those who can obtain even a fraction of that amount.
An unusual half-page letter was published in a recent edition of the <i>Cape Times</i>. Printed in a large red font, the letter had no graphic ambitions. It was a letter but it was marked across the top as an advertisement, a necessary qualification in case the newspaper is identified as the source of the material. Congratulations are, nonetheless, due to the <i>Cape Times</i> for running it.
A North West father charged with sexually abusing and neglecting his sons was found guilty in the Brits Regional Court on Thursday. Magistrate Louis Matthee found the 45-year-old man from Mooinooi near Pretoria guilty on 18 charges, including indecent assault, contraventions of the Child Care Act and assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm.
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Observers from neighbouring Southern African countries met with several Zimbabwean political groups on Thursday to assess the running of elections in the country. Only the South African and Mauritian observers of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) mission have thus far arrived in Zimbabwe.
North Korea accused the United States administration on Thursday of having suggested the Asian country’s ”elimination” and blamed the US for a breakdown in multilateral talks on North Korea’s nuclear disarmament. Vice-President Yang Hyong Sop was speaking in Pretoria after talks with Deputy President Jacob Zuma.
A 30-year-old woman who fell down a narrow mineshaft near the Marathon informal settlement in Primrose, Germiston, on Thursday was rescued just before 1pm, emergency services spokesperson Johann van den Heever said. Patricia Nzimande was found at a depth of 45m to 50m, deeper than emergency staff had originally thought.
A new Arrive Alive campaign is to focus on dangerous sections of roads where almost 6 000 people died in accidents in South Africa last year. The project will start before the start of the Easter weekend, Minister of Transport Jeff Radebe said on Thursday. Eighty new patrol cars will monitor the hazardous locations seven days a week.
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As the world focuses on the upcoming Zimbabwean elections, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) on Thursday released startling new statistics that call for politicians and donors to defend children as rigorously as they defend democracy. ”The world must differentiate between the politics and the people of Zimbabwe,” said Unicef executive director Carol Bellamy.