Egyptian officials have found torture gear including a whip, clubs and a barbed wire-studded stick at a police station in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, a security source said on Tuesday. An investigating team found that 40 people had been kept in custody ”illegally” at the Montaza police station after receiving complaints from the families of those detained.
Gunmen dressed in Iraqi military uniforms stormed a village in the restive Iraqi province of Diyala, north-east of Baghdad, overnight and murdered 29 people, security officials said on Tuesday. And insurgents continued to carry out attacks in the capital, setting off two car bombs in Baghdad, including one near the Iranian embassy.
Vodacom is going to court again, this time to prevent striking workers from violence and damaging property, the Communication Workers’ Union said on Tuesday. Vodacom lodged an application for the second interdict last week and the matter would be heard on Wednesday, said CWU spokesperson Mfanafuthi Sithebe.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) called for a donation of ,5-million on Tuesday to safeguard war-weary Somalis from an expected crop failure. ”The people of Somalia have been hit by drought and floods last year and now insecurity and new displacements,” said Peter Goossens, WFP’s Somalia country director.
Strong anti-government sentiment was evident at a housing protest outside Parliament’s main gate in Cape Town on Tuesday. Residents of the city’s problem-ridden N2 Gateway housing project had marched on the institution to bring their grievances about high rentals and poor construction to the attention of Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu.
Most South African women prefer their men hairless, at least when it comes to body hair, according to a survey released on Tuesday by Dutch shaving product manufacturer Royal Philips Electronics. The Philips Bodygroom Survey also found over half of the men who had taken part ”admitted to attempting to trim, shave or wax” their body hair.
The Department of Home Affairs on Tuesday rejected the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) call for the government to set up refugee camps for Zimbabweans fleeing their country. Cleo Mosana, spokesperson for Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, accused the official opposition party of exploiting the Zimbabwean situation for publicity.
The Ethiopian government is looking into pardon requests filed by dozens of opposition members whose heavy jail terms drew a barrage of international criticism, a senior official said on Tuesday. ”The government received the request for pardon by the detainees almost three weeks ago,” Bereket Simon said.
The National Prosecution Authority’s decision to prosecute apartheid-era minister of law and order Adriaan Vlok must not be seen as a witch-hunt, the South African Human Rights Commission said on Tuesday. Vlok, former police chief Johann van der Merwe and three former high-ranking police officers will appear in court for attempted murder next month.
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Former British prime minister Tony Blair is one of hundreds of well-wishers across the globe who have sent gifts to anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela for his 89th birthday on Wednesday. ”We have received a deluge of gifts and messages,” said Boniswa Qabaka-Nyeti, a spokesperson at the flagship Nelson Mandela Foundation.