Indian MPs demanded protection on Wednesday from hordes of monkeys that have invaded the Parliament building, ministries and departments in the national capital. The debate coincided with court orders on Wednesday to transport captured monkeys from New Delhi to a nearby wildlife sanctuary.
Minister of Sport and Recreation Makhenkesi Stofile has warned against complacency in the Rugby World Cup in France in September after South Africa’s success in the Super 14 competition. Meanwhile, the official World Cup trophy stimulated nostalgia in South Africa where it arrived on Wednesday for a two-day visit.
The African Development Bank must undertake significant internal reforms to become more responsive to the continent’s needs and more effective as a tool for development, the bank’s president and governors said on Wednesday in Shanghai at its annual two-day meeting.
A wildfire raged across the north-eastern American state of New Jersey on Wednesday, forcing thousands of people to evacuate in the latest in a series of such blazes to strike the United States this month. The fire was ignited when an F-16 jet fighter on a routine training mission dropped a flare on dry pinelands.
A truck bomb laden with chlorine gas exploded in a market area in a mostly Shi’ite town north of Baghdad on Tuesday, killing 45 people and wounding 60, police said on Wednesday. The attack in volatile Diyala province took place in a market area in the town of Abu Sayda, a source said in the police headquarters in Diyala’s capital of Baquba. News of the attack did not emerge until Wednesday.
One of the Boeremag treason accused, Herman Scheepers, has died after a long battle against a brain virus he contracted in jail. Scheepers (52) has been absent from the trial since last year because of his ill health. He was granted bail in July 2006 after four years in custody, following an urgent application by his attorney, Paul Kruger.
A Johannesburg man who joked on board a kulula.com aircraft about hijacking the plane is to go on trial in the Bellville Regional Court in October. The case was on Wednesday transferred from the Bellville Magistrate’s Court to the regional court, when Mncedisi Eric Maluleka (32) made his fourth appearance since his arrest in October last year.
Eight trade unions belonging to the Independent Labour Caucus (ILC) and representing almost 40% of public-service employees will know by next Friday if their members will strike. Speaking in Pretoria, Manie de Clercq, chairperson of the ILC, said the eight unions are ”balloting their members” and will have the results of that on May 25.
A man with a stolen gun was disarmed by a Tembisa high school principal on Tuesday, Tembisa police said. Captain Manyadza Ralidzhivha said three pupils ran to the principal’s office to tell him that an armed man was in one of the classes. The 47-year-old Bokamoso High School principal informed the police and went to investigate.
A petrol-bombed truck burned out and three petrol bombs were thrown at police vehicles in Khutsong on Wednesday, North West police said. Superintendent Louis Jacobs said residents had started throwing stones and burning tyres in the morning. Three petrol bombs were thrown at police Nyala armoured vehicles but did not cause major damage, he said.