Gunmen battled Iraqi security forces on Tuesday near two of Shi’ite Islam’s holiest shrines in the city of Kerbala, where hundreds of thousands of pilgrims had gathered for a religious festival. A senior security source in Baghdad said 25 people had been killed, mostly police officers.
The South African Constitution allows for the freedom of expression and for ordinary citizens’ participation in government by raising concerns in the form of petitions and protest marches. However, protests are being "censored" by government authorities, says the Freedom of Expression Network.
The Johannesburg municipality’s evictions of people from derelict buildings should be declared in breach of the law, the Constitutional Court was told on Tuesday. The municipality should also be told to fix up its problems, submitted lawyer Geoff Budlender for the Centre for Housing Rights and Evictions, a Swiss-based NGO.
The Tshwane metro council has been forbidden to replace the name Pretoria with Tshwane on route and guidance signs pending the outcome of an application to stop the name change. Pretoria High Court Judge Bill Prinsloo on Tuesday granted an urgent interim interdict to the Freedom Front Plus and AfriForum.
A series of United States-led air and ground assaults in Iraqi flashpoints has killed at least 41 suspected rebels, the American military said on Tuesday. Eight militants were killed and 11 detained in separate ground and air assaults in Iraq’s northern province of Kirkuk and central province of Salaheddin, it said, adding that both operations were aimed at al-Qaeda.
Hundreds of hard-line supporters of Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe will stage a show of strength in support of the veteran president in the capital, Harare, on Wednesday, organisers said. ”The solidarity march is in support of President Robert Mugabe and his policies,” said Joseph Chinotimba of the war veterans’ association.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) failed to pose critical questions when reporting on the South African Communist Party ‘s (SACP) R500 000 missing donation saga, MPs heard on Tuesday. SACP member Sizwe Shezi told the National Assembly’s communication committee that the public broadcaster’s current reporting style left much to be desired.
Australian skipper Ricky Ponting leads the nominations for this year’s International Cricket Council (ICC) annual awards, figuring in as many as four individual categories. The 32-year-old Ponting, who led Australia to an unprecedented hat-trick of World Cup titles in West Indies in April, is in the race to retain both the Cricketer of the Year and Test Player of the Year awards.
Mystery surrounds the reported discovery of what might be the largest diamond in the world. The stone, found in an unnamed North West mine, is believed to be twice the size of the world’s biggest, the Cullinan. A spokesperson for the mining company that made the discovery said the stone was excavated on Monday.
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Search warrants and not subpoenas were necessary to obtain documents from African National Congress deputy president Jacob Zuma, the state argued in the Supreme Court of Appeal on Tuesday. Wim Trengove argued that the lesser means of a subpoena would cause a ”high risk” of evidence being concealed or destroyed.