North Korean authorities have indicated flooding may have left up to 300Â 000 people homeless, a United Nations aid-agency spokesperson said on Wednesday. North Korea said hundreds were dead or missing. Meanwhile, at least 38 more people died overnight in flood-hit Bangladesh.
Hurricane Flossie was downgraded to a tropical storm hours after sending powerful waves, wind and rain toward Hawaii’s southern coast late on Tuesday. Meanwhile, a new tropical depression formed in the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Dean formed midway between Africa and the Caribbean, and Typhoon Sepat skirted the Philippines.
Cape Town mayor Helen Zille will take disciplinary action against the city’s metro police who blocked the N2 in Cape Town on Wednesday, her office said. Zille spokesperson Robert Macdonald said the mayor had said ”urgent disciplinary measures” would be instituted and that criminal charges had also been laid with the South African Police Service.
A 26-year-old student police officer died after he was shot and set on fire in Buhle Park, near Germiston, police said on Wednesday. Inspector Juanita Kilian said Constable Kabelo Motsumi from the Katlehong police station was brutally murdered near his parents’ home on Tuesday night.
Britain’s biggest lottery winner was stunned into silence when she realised she’d scooped £35-million with a single ticket. Postal worker Angela Kelly (40) said on Wednesday she was still in shock after claiming the weekend jackpot that makes her one of the richest women in the country.
Ethiopian security forces have foiled an attempt by Eritrean-sponsored insurgents to assassinate officials and destroy public institutions, the state-run Ethiopian News Agency reported on Wednesday. The two Horn of Africa nations have been at loggerheads since a 1998 to 2000 border war that killed 70Â 000 people.
The 2010 Soccer World Cup will test South Africa’s ”fiscal muscle”, but the country will not run out of money, the chief executive of the local organising committee said on Wednesday. ”We will never run out of money … the project remains within budget,” Danny Jordaan told a 2010 National Communications Partnership Conference in Johannesburg.
The Cape Town Medi-Clinic has laid a charge of theft at the Cape Town police station in connection with missing medical records belonging to Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. Western Cape police spokesperson Captain Randall Stoffels said on Wednesday the investigation was ongoing and police were busy compiling statements.
World oil prices swirled higher on Wednesday as traders looked to stormy weather that could threaten energy facilities in the United States Gulf of Mexico. Market participants were also awaiting the latest update on crude reserves in the US. New York’s main futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in September, rose to $72,56 per barrel.
Kenya’s main opposition coalition has split into two factions ahead of a presidential election in December, boosting President Mwai Kibaki’s chances of re-election, politicians said on Wednesday. After months of feuding between opposition presidential aspirants Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka, the pair have parted ways.