United States forces have arrested a top Iraqi militant who acted as a link between al-Qaeda’s Iraqi offshoot and Osama bin Laden, the global jihadist network’s Saudi founder, the US military said on Wednesday. Brigadier General Kevin Bergner said American troops had arrested Khaled al-Mashhadani on July 4 in the northern city of Mosul.
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South Africa marked Nelson Mandela’s 89th birthday on Wednesday with tributes and congratulations as the anti-apartheid icon prepared to launch a new international group to help solve the world’s problems. Mandela was to unveil the group of elder statesmen at a news conference in Johannesburg.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on Wednesday ruled out declaring an emergency in an effort to stem a tide of militant attacks that have killed more than 130 people this month. In the lastest violence, militants killed 17 soldiers in the North Waziristan region a day after a suicide bomber killed 16 people in the capital.
Two Lebanese soldiers died overnight in a booby-trapped building at a Palestinian refugee camp where fighting with Islamist militants has lasted for two months. The fighting has cost the lives of at least 230 people, including 109 soldiers, and is the worst internal violence to hit Lebanon since the civil war ended 17 years ago.
The United Nations nuclear watchdog said on Wednesday that North Korea had shut down its nuclear reactor and four related facilities, a major step in efforts to get it to give up its nuclear-weapons programmes. The announcement came as negotiators at six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear-weapons programme sat down to a first day of talks in Beijing.
Four members of a gang believed to have blown up at least five ATMs have been arrested in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), police said on Wednesday. Police spokesperson Superintendent Vincent Mdunge said two were arrested last Friday, a third on Monday and the fourth on Tuesday.
The spat between the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Department of Home Affairs over the handling of Zimbabweans fleeing to South Africa continued on Wednesday. Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula ”has no idea” of the volumes of Zimbabwean refugees who will flow into South Africa over the next few months, the DA’s Mark Lowe said.
South African retail-sales growth jumped to 9% year-on-year in May at constant prices, official data showed on Wednesday, adding pressure on the Reserve Bank to raise interest rates further. Statistics South Africa said the sales growth surged from an upwardly revised 5,9% in April, lifting the number for the three months to May to 8,5%.
The South African Revenue Service has posted its simpler, shorter tax returns to individual taxpayers. More than 2,5-million tax returns have been sent to the South African Post Office and will be delivered to taxpayers around the country this month. By the end of July, almost four million IT12 S and IT12C returns will have been mailed.
Food price inflation is likely to remain above the South African Reserve Bank’s (SARB) inflation target band of 3% to 6% CPIX (headline consumer inflation less mortgage rate changes) for the foreseeable future, thus maintaining pressure on local interest rates and consumers’ budgets.