The fate of more English cities, towns and villages hung in the balance on Tuesday as emergency crews built up defences against rising waters during Britain’s worst floods in living memory. The government’s crisis-response committee met late on Monday and again on Tuesday as some rivers topped levels reached during the floods in 1947.
The United Nations on Tuesday appealed for -million to help Somalis fleeing renewed violence and said the overall number of people uprooted in the Horn of Africa country was now estimated at 500Â 000. More than 10Â 000 people fled the capital, Mogadishu, last week, many of them now living in ”deplorable conditions”.
South Africa’s rand has firmed to levels that may add to central bank concerns about the current account deficit and raise doubts about the wisdom of pushing through more interest rate hikes. Raising rates further could enhance South Africa’s carry trade credentials among investors hunting for higher yields, and so bolster the rand.
A 35-year old policeman who was severely burnt in a fire at a Durban police residence died in the early hours of Tuesday morning, police said. The policeman, Sergeant Craig Roach, suffered burns to 65% of his body in a blaze in his 13th floor flat in the South African Police Service’s Natalia building on Monday morning.
Rescue teams struggled on Tuesday to reach parts of Indonesia’s Sulawesi island where about 60 people were feared dead and 8 000 displaced by landslides and floods caused by days of torrential rains. Days of heavy downpour have caused landslides and floods up to three metres high.
Spanish intelligence has arrested a suspected double agent who had been sending state secrets to Russia, the head of the National Intelligence Agency (CNI) said on Tuesday, according to local radio. The double agent had been working for Russia until 2004, CNI head Alberto Saiz said, according to Cadena Ser radio.
Protests in Soweto against poor service delivery should be a warning to the government that people were losing patience, the Independent Democrats said on Tuesday. Party leader Patricia de Lille said that while people understood the history and the backlog of service delivery, they were no longer willing to accept that there was not enough money.
The National Civilian Safety and Security Action (Nacissa) lobby group on Tuesday urged South Africans to deduct expenditure on private security from their taxable income this year. Spokesperson Conrad Beyers said a substantial portion of South Africans’ income tax should be used by the government for safeguarding its citizens.
Zimbabwe’s central bank on Tuesday said it was indefinitely postponing a much awaited mid-year monetary policy statement due next week to give time to analyse the implications of government price controls and an imminent supplementary budget.
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A beaming Nelson Mandela cut birthday cake, gave hugs and received gifts at his annual children’s party in Johannesburg on Tuesday. The children sang Happy Birthday to the 89-year-old shortly after his arrival at the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund offices.