Nasa astronauts prepared on Tuesday to bring the space shuttle Endeavour back to Earth after a two-week mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Endeavour is scheduled to land at the Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral, Florida, with two chances to touch down, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said.
General price pressures are evident in the South African economy, which is growing above its potential, Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni said on Tuesday. Mboweni also told students in the northern city of Polokwane that interest rates were the only tool to tame generalised inflation, raising the possibility that rates may have to rise further this year.
A parliamentary committee, in a report tabled on Tuesday, has proposed sweeping and controversial changes to the structure and functioning of institutions such as the Human Rights Commission (HRC), the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) and other constitutional bodies.
Support for Nazi ideas in Germany is making people fear for their lives, a government minister said on Tuesday. Wolfgang Tiefensee, the minister responsible for east Germany, was speaking after a mob of about 50 Germans attacked and chased eight Indians through the streets of a small eastern town at the weekend.
Thirty-nine people are believed to have been killed in a weekend ferry disaster in northern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), local officials said on Tuesday. The boat, overloaded with passengers and goods, sank during a storm on Saturday while crossing the Ubangui River.
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Jacob Zuma will apply to court on Thursday to stop the national director of public prosecutions (NDPP) from extending an investigation to the United Kingdom. At the end of March, the NDPP brought an ex-parte application for permission to approach banks in Britain with a view to the possible reinstating of fraud and corruption charges against Zuma
Southern African leaders meeting in Lusaka last week should have been more vociferous against human rights violations taking place in Zimbabwe, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Tuesday. The London-based group accused Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders of wasting a crucial opportunity.
The United Nations human rights office on Tuesday accused forces allied with Sudan’s government of mass abduction and rape of women and girls in Darfur, acts it said could constitute war crimes. Its latest report, based on testimony from victims and witnesses, called on Khartoum to investigate reports that about 50 women were forced into ”sexual slavery”.
Municipal workers will embark on an indefinite strike in Cape Town next week, the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) said on Tuesday. Samwu said the strike was a protest against the city’s unilateral implementation of new conditions of service. The city had also relocated staff without any agreement with the union. However, the city rejected the union’s allegations.
Hurricane Dean, a monster category-five storm, smashed into Mexico’s Caribbean coast on Tuesday, its roaring winds and heavy rain battering beach resorts where thousands of tourists huddled in shelters. Seas churned as the storm, which killed 11 people earlier on its rampage through the Caribbean, came to shore around the cruise-ship port of Costa Maya.