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/ 24 October 2007
Life is improving steadily — at least in the area of housing and basic service delivery — for the 48-million people living in South Africa, according to Statistics South Africa. The organisation on Wednesday released the first results of its 2007 Community Survey, based on responses from about 255Â 000 households.
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/ 24 October 2007
The nine South African soldiers killed during a military training exercise at Lohatla base were on Wednesday hailed as heroes and heroines during a memorial service in Kimberley. Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said that the five men and four women had fallen in defence of South Africa’s hard-won democracy.
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/ 24 October 2007
Four men were arrested after allegedly kidnapping a young boy and demanding R75 000 ransom from his parents on Wednesday, Pretoria police said. ”The [boy’s mother] told the men to come to her office today [Wednesday] to collect the money, and at the same time, she called police,” Inspector Paul Ramaloko said.
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/ 24 October 2007
Turkish warplanes and troops attacked Kurdish rebels inside Iraq this week, security sources said on Wednesday, but Ankara wants to hold back from any major incursion for now and give diplomacy a chance. Turkey moved more troops to the mountainous border, keeping up pressure on Baghdad to honour promises to crack down on the rebels.
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/ 24 October 2007
After three days of a vicious firestorm, exhausted firefighters and weary residents looked forward on Wednesday to a break — an expected slackening of the gale-force winds that have ignited California’s largest complex of wildland blazes. ”By Thursday, we’re expecting it to be pretty much over,” said a meteorologist.
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/ 24 October 2007
A Russian supermarket worker branded ”the chessboard murderer” was found guilty on Wednesday of killing 48 people after he confessed in court that the first time he took a life was like falling in love. He was given his nickname by Russian media because he had hoped to put a coin on every space of a 64-place chessboard, one for each victim.
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/ 24 October 2007
National oil company PetroSA is to construct a R39-billion crude-oil refinery in Coega near Port Elizabeth, the company announced on Wednesday. Dubbed Project Mthombo, the proposed crude-oil refinery is expected to produce about 200 000 barrels of fuel a day and will come on stream in 2014/15.
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/ 24 October 2007
A crowd of about 500 bereaved music fans thronged in the scorching sun outside music venue the Bassline in Johannesburg’s Newtown cultural precinct on Wednesday for the memorial service of slain South African reggae icon Lucky Dube. Inside were another 1Â 000 fans, family members and friends of the singer.
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/ 24 October 2007
Zimbabwe’s central bank chief pledged on Wednesday that empty shop shelves would soon be replenished as he denounced the ”anarchy” inspired by the government’s order for retailers to slash their prices in half. Gideon Gono said the availability of goods was improving after widespread shortages that he acknowledged were sparked by the blitz.
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/ 24 October 2007
The latest clashes in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have driven 33 000 more people from villages in Nord-Kivu province and a cholera outbreak is suspected, United Nations agencies reported on Wednesday. About 25 000 people have been uprooted in the rugged Rutshuru highlands about 50km north of the provincial capital, Goma.