The South African Council of Churches (SACC) on Tuesday said it doubted claims by an East Rand teenager that she had repeatedly seen the Virgin Mary. ”I doubt it very much … We know that people in desperate situations search for answers from God. The God that we know reveals himself in a meaningful manner,” said SACC general secretary Eddie Makue.
South Africa has become the first African country to join the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s anti-bribery convention, the Department of Public Service and Administration said on Tuesday. South Africa signed the convention in France.
A missile attack killed at least 17 pro-Taliban militants and wounded 10 in a Pakistani tribal region near the Afghan border on Tuesday, according to independent television news channels. The blast occurred at a militant training camp near Datta Khel district, about 60km west of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan.
More than 6,8 metric tonnes of liquids, aerosols and gels (lags) have so far been seized under new airport safety measures, the Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) said on Tuesday. It said when the new regulations came into effect on June 1, about 500 litres of lags a day were seized at the three international airports — OR Tambo, Durban and Cape Town.
Women should benefit from the settlement of land claims, Agriculture and Land Affairs Minister Lulu Xingwana said on Tuesday. Handing over commercial land valued at R1-billion to four communities in Mpumalanga, she said it was crucial that women were not marginalised. ”Women must benefit significantly from the economic benefits that follow with this claim,” she said.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has called for an urgent meeting with the Premier Soccer League (PSL) over its controversial awarding of broadcasting rights to pay channel SuperSport. ”The [SABC] board calls upon the leadership of the PSL to urgently meet the SABC management team,” chairperson Eddie Funde said on Tuesday.
The time has come for a settlement in the public-service wage dispute, Congress of South African Trade Unions general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the dismissal of a group of striking Western Cape health workers was a violation of their patients’ constitutional rights, the Cape High Court has been told.
Hasbro struggled when the toy company tied its fortunes too closely to toys based on movies. But a movie based on its toys? That could be a different story. Hasbro is banking that the release of Transformers — based on Hasbro’s ”robots in disguise” toys introduced in the 1980s — will herald a new era for the company.
Colombian officials have found the remains of 760 victims killed by right-wing paramilitary groups, and have leads on another 4 000 bodies, a state prosecutor said, according to news reports on Tuesday. Prosecutor Luis Gonzalez said that the bodies were found with the help of information supplied by former paramilitary leaders.
Ghanaians were on Tuesday torn between excitement and apprehension over a major oil find in the West African nation, with some viewing it as a boon and others fearing it could turn out to be a curse. British oil and gas company Tullow Oil on Monday announced the discovery of up to 600-million barrels of oil off Ghana’s coast.