Thousands of African National Congress (ANC) demonstrators gathered at the civic centre in Cape Town on Wednesday to protest against the Democratic Alliance-led (DA) city council. ”March against DA council’s high rates, service cut-offs, pink letters and evictions,” read a pamphlet distributed to the protesters.
A long-awaited report into an incident where President Thabo Mbeki was heckled, allegedly by Jacob Zuma supporters, at last year’s reburial of former African National Congress (ANC) stalwart Moses Mabhida has been sent to the party’s secretary general, Kgalema Motlanthe.
Britain’s Prince Harry will not be sent to serve in Iraq after military commanders decided it would be too dangerous, Britain’s Ministry of Defence said on Wednesday. Harry (22), the third in line to the throne and a junior officer in the army, had been due to be deployed to Basra, in southern Iraq, with his Blues and Royals regiment.
Bombs killed a police officer and wounded five other people on Wednesday on the eve of parliamentary elections in Algeria, prompting fears of renewed Islamist extremism. The blasts came 48 hours after the North Africa branch of Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network called on Algerians to boycott Thursday’s polls.
African and European continental parliamentarians said on Wednesday they hope their differences over Zimbabwe’s attending the European Union-Africa Summit in December will blow over. The EU has imposed ”targeted sanctions” against Zimbabwe, including a ban on Cabinet ministers travelling from that country to Europe.
Amazon.com said on Wednesday it is launching an online music store this year featuring millions of songs without copying limitations. The online retail giant said it has signed a deal with British-based music publisher EMI Music to include its music catalogue as well as those from 12 000 other music labels.
MPs serving on the National Assembly public enterprises portfolio committee have been told that the establishment of a new state-owned company, Infraco, would allow for massively reduced costs of access to broadband in future. If the Infraco model were adopted, it could cut prices immediately by 65%.
The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) has averted a national strike that could have affected about 25Â 000 bus drivers in the private bus sector. The three unions that had planned the action signed an agreement with the employers on Tuesday, said spokesperson Lusanda Myoli.
A newborn baby suffocated in its mother’s amniotic sac after she waited five hours for an ambulance to arrive, the Herald Online reported on Wednesday. Thobeka Makanjwa was admitted to hospital after her baby died on Monday morning. The ambulance’s late arrival has outraged the community.
A debate raging over the morals of Hong Kong’s racy media took a bizarre twist on Wednesday with revelations that a decency watchdog had been flooded with obscenity complaints about the Bible. The Television and Entertainments Licensing Authority said it had received 208 complaints that text within the holy book was indecent.