A Cape Town city councillor on Monday denied that he was offering bribes to fellow councillors to join a new political party later this year. Badih Chaaban, a proportionally elected councillor for the African Muslim Party, was responding to a statement issued by the Independent Democrats on the weekend.
Britain’s ambassador on Monday submitted an official request to Russia for the extradition of the man suspected of murdering Alexander Litvinenko. British prosecutors said last week they wanted to bring Russian businessman Andrei Lugovoy before a British court to try him for the murder of Litvinenko, who died on November 23 last year.
A stay-at-home protest meant to embarrass Nigeria’s incoming president over flawed elections foundered on Monday as apathy and an unexpected public holiday diluted the effect. Nigerian cities were quieter than usual on the eve of the inauguration of Umaru Yar’Adua as president.
Palestinian leaders on Monday sought to end a bloody stand-off between the Lebanese army and Islamist militants holed up in a refugee camp. The government is giving the main Palestinian factions time to try to deal with the Fatah al-Islam group, which has been battling the army around the Nahr al-Bared camp.
Chad’s government does not want a United Nations military peacekeeping force deployed in its violent east because it fears its neighbours may see these foreign troops as a threat, the prime minister said on Monday. A UN mission is in Chad to try to persuade the country to accept a robust UN military force.
Zimbabwe plans to nearly double the size of its police force ahead of general elections next year because of fears the polls could be marred by violence, its state-run newspaper reported on Monday. The move to beef up security comes amid growing public discontent over a deep economic crisis in the Southern African nation.
The size of an average South African household has declined from 4,48 in 1996 to 3,69 people in 2005, researchers said on Monday. A study conducted by the University of South Africa revealed that this decline was a result of the impact of HIV/Aids, urbanisation, lower fertility and greater preference of single-person households.
An interim interdict that stopped industrial action at Vodacom in March was lifted by the Johannesburg Labour Court on Monday, the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) said. Union spokesperson Mfanafuthi Sithebe said the court had ”opened the way for CWU to resume its strike”.
Tom Wayne amassed thousands of books in a warehouse during the 10 years he has run his used-book store, Prospero’s Books. But wanting to thin out his collection, he found he could not even give books away to libraries or thrift shops, which said they were full. So on Sunday, Wayne began burning his books.
On Monday, the first of 12 days of hearings into who should be granted a pay-TV licence, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) submitted that successful applicants for the country’s new cable licence should carry the SABC’s own channels and pay the state broadcaster for its intellectual property.