Crime and violence are at crisis levels in Kenya in the build-up to elections as gangs terrorise the population and ”trigger-happy” police respond with impunity, human rights groups said on Wednesday. The Kenya Human Rights Network said 300 criminals, police officers, victims of land clashes and suspected members of a banned sect were killed in the last six months.
The South African government announced on Wednesday a series of events marking the 40th anniversary of the death of former African National Congress president Albert Luthuli, the first African to win the Nobel Peace Prize. The anti-apartheid icon, who received the 1960 Nobel Prize for his role in the struggle against white-only rule, died on July 21 1967.
The European Union’s Court of Justice on Wednesday annulled a European Union (EU) antitrust decision that had prevented South African giant De Beers from buying rough diamonds from Russian rival Alrosa. The EU court said that European Commission efforts to curb business between the two diamond operations was ”manifestly disproportionate”.
Ethiopian scientists said on Tuesday they have discovered hominid fossil fragments dating from between 3,5-million and 3,8-million years ago in what could fill a crucial gap in the understanding of human evolution. Archaeologist Yohannes Haile Selassie said the find included several complete jaws and one partial skeleton.
A suicide bomber detonated explosives at an Algerian military barracks on Wednesday, killing himself and about eight other people in the restive Kabylie region east of Algiers, residents said. The blast 120km east of the capital was one of the worst rebel attacks in months.
About 160 Palestinians fled a refugee camp in north Lebanon on Wednesday as the Lebanese army prepared to launch a final assault against al-Qaeda-inspired militants holed up inside. Troops have been battling Fatah al-Islam fighters at Nahr al-Bared for nearly eight weeks.
A British court sentenced four men on Wednesday to 40 years in jail each for an al-Qaeda-directed attempt to carry out suicide bomb attacks on London’s transport system on July 21 2005. Muktah Said Ibrahim, Yassin Hassan Omar, Ramzi Mohammed and Hussein Osman were found guilty on Monday of conspiracy to murder in connection with the botched attacks.
Shea Karssing looks at what’s on offer at this year’s Encounters South African Documentary Festival.
National power utility Eskom and trade unions started conciliation meetings in Johannesburg on Wednesday aimed at resolving a wage dispute. Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration spokesperson Lusanda Myoli said Eskom had consented to an offer of intervention last week.
Three women arrested for allegedly drowning and burying a child in a yard are to appear before a magistrate in closed chambers in Mamelodi, Pretoria, on Wednesday. Inspector Paul Ramaloka said a 34-year-old woman, her aunt and a neighbour would appear in chambers where they are expected to confess to the killing.