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/ 18 September 2007
Despite the Western Cape having scored the highest matric pass rate in the country last year, only half of its learners reach matric, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said on Tuesday. Addressing a sitting of the provincial parliament on expenditure trends and service delivery, Manuel said the high number of learners who dropped out of school was a cause for concern.
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/ 18 September 2007
A distraught Randburg mother determined to meet the teenagers arrested after her son was stabbed to death was advised against it by police on Tuesday. ”I want to see for myself that the culprits … were arrested and are behind bars,” Nonhlanhla Ntshangase said. Her 18-year-old son, Mfundo, was stabbed seven times by pupils from another school at a party on Sunday.
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/ 18 September 2007
Thai authorities probing a plane crash that killed 89 people in Phuket discovered on Tuesday that a system designed to check for dangerous winds was not fully working, an official said. Attention had earlier focused on the pilot, with officials saying he had been warned of a dangerous wind shear by air-traffic control but decided to land anyway.
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/ 18 September 2007
Maoists stormed out of Nepal’s government and vowed to disrupt upcoming elections on Tuesday after other parties refused to bow to the ex-rebels’ demand for the monarchy to be immediately abolished. In a blow to Nepal’s 10-month-old peace process, the ultra-leftists said they would stage street protests.
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/ 18 September 2007
A disciplinary committee has found Frere Hospital whistleblower Dr Nokuzola Ntshona guilty of speaking to the media, Dispatch Online reported on Tuesday. She was found guilty on Monday on three of four charges of speaking out against the government’s reaction to a Daily Dispatch probe of Frere Hospital’s maternity section.
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/ 18 September 2007
China plans to lend the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) -billion to modernise its decrepit infrastructure and rich but deteriorated mining sector in another huge Chinese investment foray in Africa. Under a draft accord signed on Monday, Beijing earmarked the funds for major road and rail construction projects and for rehabilitation of DRC’s mining sector.
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/ 18 September 2007
Zimbabwe’s main opposition party reached an agreement on Tuesday with the government on the adoption of a Bill that paves the way for joint presidential and legislative elections next year. In a surprise move announced in Parliament, senior members of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said they would not try to block legislation to amend the Constitution.
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/ 18 September 2007
Tests have confirmed an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease at a third farm in south-east England this month, the Environment Ministry said on Tuesday. ”Foot-and-mouth disease has today been confirmed at the slaughter-on-suspicion premises where sheep, pigs and cattle were culled last night [Monday],” the government said in a statement.
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/ 18 September 2007
The New York Times said on Monday it will end its paid TimesSelect web service and make most of its website available for free in the hopes of attracting more readers and higher advertising revenue. TimesSelect will shut down on Wednesday, two years after the Times launched it, which charges subscribers ,95 a month or ,95 a year.
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/ 18 September 2007
United Nations agencies on Tuesday warned that the worst floods seen in parts of Africa for decades could intensify in the coming days and appealed for international aid to avert the threat of disease. About a million people have been affected by torrential rains stretching between West and East Africa since July.