The Johannesburg Metro Police Department wants to raise the payment levels of traffic fines from an average of 33% to 60% within the next few years, media reports said on Wednesday. Measures include establishing a special squad to trace the top 100 offenders.
In the spacious, top-floor office of Gaza’s former police chief, the television was tuned to al-Aqsa TV, the Hamas channel, and at lunchtime half a dozen well-armed, bearded Hamas commanders rose in unison and knelt in prayer. On the streets there were no policemen to be seen.
United States and Iraqi forces killed at least 30 al-Qaeda militants and found numerous weapons during the first day of an offensive against the Sunni Islamist group north of Baghdad, the US military said on Wednesday. The military said a missile strike destroyed a weapons cache inside a known al-Qaeda safe house.
Records from the trial of Nelson Mandela, a medieval French tapestry, a millennium-old Iranian epic and the Hollywood movie The Wizard of Oz are among 38 new items on a Unesco cultural heritage list, the body said on Tuesday.
United States soldiers and airmen fighting in Iraq are to receive a new weapon in their arsenal: a pack of playing cards to help them identify ancient ruins before creating new ones. The Pentagon’s move, is part of a belated scheme to prevent further war damage to the country’s 11 000 archaeological sites.
China has overtaken the United States as the biggest producer of carbon dioxide, a development that will increase anxiety about its role in driving man-made global warming and will add to pressure on the world’s politicians to reach an agreement on climate change that includes the Chinese economy.
Interactive whiteboards result in improved test scores, particularly in English, maths and science. This is according to a new report on the impact of information and communication technology (ICT) on learner achievement. The report, by European Schoolnet, examined the results of 17 studies on ICT produced in the United Kingdom and other European countries between 2002 and 2006.
The education department in KwaZulu-Natal is recruiting teachers who retired and who accepted voluntary severance packages as part of its strategy to relieve educator shortages in certain subjects. Christi Naudé, spokesperson for the department, said 426 teachers have already been registered on the provincial database.
School principals, school governing bodies and representative councils of learners have signed “contracts” with the provincial department of education, undertaking to improve the achievement of grade 10, 11 and 12 learners. Persistent failure to meet these contractual obligations could, in severe cases, lead to the redeployment or even dismissal of principals, according to the Western Cape department of education.
Education Minister Naledi Pandor has appointed a Ministerial Committee that would examine the issue of how to retain learners at schools. This is meant to help the education department pinpoint the reasons why learners drop out of school. The committee comprises high-powered experts and its main task would be to “provide definitive information” on learner retention rates from grade 1 to 12.