The opposition frontrunner in Sierra Leone’s presidential election cut short a campaigning tour on Friday after his convoy was attacked by stone-throwing pro-government supporters, witnesses said. Ernest Bai Koroma accused the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party of outgoing President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah of trying to derail the election, before a run-off vote on September 8.
The onus is now on Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang to ”cleanse” her name and counter allegations levelled against her by the Sunday Times, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa-SA) said on Friday. ”Misa-SA believes that it is within the minister’s moral obligation to publicly nullify the allegations and set the record straight,” it said.
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang is a South African heroine and a true and devoted servant of the masses, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday. The recent sustained and merciless propaganda assault against her was frightening, and ”belongs to wild animals”, he said in his weekly online newsletter, ANC Today.
Since 1998, the Buckfever Underground have consistently produced albums of stark originality that make the majority of their peers look like half-arsed chancers, writes Lloyd Gedye.
Strings may be an unexpected addition to Chris McGregor’s jazz, but his music was always about expansion, writes Shaun de Waal.
NOT THE MOVIE OF THE WEEK (OR ANY WEEK): According to Shaun de Waal, Rush Hour III is not funny, the action is dull and it’s not enjoyable at all
Parallel trials for Aids vaccines in South Africa look promising in their long road to conclusion, a press conference in Sandton heard on Friday. Indications are that vaccine trials tailored for global strains had an effect against the strain of the virus most prevalent in South Africa.
At least eight people were killed and more than 100 injured when a packed passenger train ploughed into a slow-moving train on Thursday in a northern suburb of Rio de Janeiro. Officials said the death toll could go higher. ”It is a tragedy,” said fire department chief Pedro Marcos.
It is credible that Azanian People’s Organisation’s (Azapo) president Mosibudi Mangena is too busy to hand over his gun, despite leading a campaign against guns, said Azapo on Friday. ”As a president of the party … with such [a] busy schedule, not having had time to hand over his gun as yet is not [an] inconceivable and unreasonable excuse,” it said.
An Indian farmer who has fathered his 21st child at the ripe old age of 90 says he wants to carry on having children until he is 100 — but his wife is throwing in the towel. Nanu Ram Jogi is revered by the menfolk of Paanchimli village in the western desert state of Rajasthan where the nonagenarian lives with 109 members of his extended family.