Floods caused by abnormally heavy rains have affected nearly 7Â 000 people in southern Ethiopia, disaster officials said on Wednesday. "Almost 7Â 000 people are already affected by the floods caused by heavy rains in the south of the country for more than a week, especially in the Omo region," said Sisay Tadesse, spokesperson for the Ethiopian Agency for Disaster Prevention.
The state on Wednesday urged the Wynberg Regional Court to refuse bail for slain entertainer Taliep Petersen’s widow, Najwa, as well as for one of the three co-accused in the murder, Abdoer Emjedi. Najwa’s own family handed to the court a petition in which the community demanded she remain in custody.
African Union peacekeepers in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region are facing a serious funding crunch that has affected morale ahead of deployment of a planned United Nations-AU force, the head of the joint mission said on Wednesday. Under sustained pressure, Sudan agreed last month to a combined UN-AU peacekeeping force of 20Â 000 troops.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown set a target on Wednesday of building three million new houses in Britain by 2020 under measures to tackle a growing crisis over a shortage of affordable homes. Brown knows that solving the housing problem and improving public services may be crucial to his Labour Party winning a fourth successive general election.
Ekurhuleni metro police chief Robert McBride was in the Johannesburg High Court on Wednesday to oppose an application for an urgent restraining order against him. The application was postponed on Tuesday when it emerged that McBride had been told to be in court on the wrong day.
The suspended chief designer of the McLaren Formula One team will provide a sworn declaration about how he obtained papers at the heart of an alleged spying row, a spokesperson for Ferrari said on Wednesday. Mike Coughlan is facing legal action brought by Ferrari at London’s High Court.
Bangladesh slumped to 72-4 on a rain-hit opening day of the third and final Test against Sri Lanka on Wednesday. The tourists lost the wickets of Javed Omar (8) and Habibul Bashar (18) before tea and then Rajin Saleh for a duck and Shariar Nafees for 29 in the final session.
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 United States military expects al-Qaeda in Iraq to strike back with ”spectacular attacks” after a major offensive in and around Baghdad disrupted the network’s activities, a military spokesperson said on Wednesday. Brigadier General Kevin Bergner said 26 high-level al-Qaeda leaders in Iraq had been killed or captured in May and June.
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.