South African trade unions have launched one of the biggest national strikes of the post-apartheid era in a move widely seen as spearheading the left’s challenge to win control of the ruling African National Congress ahead of next year’s presidential election. Public-service unions seem determined not to back down on their demands.
A fifth of Lesotho’s total population, or 400 000 people, will face food shortages this year after the country’s cereal harvest was ravaged by the worst drought in 30 years, a fresh report has shown. The report showed that the crisis could be experienced as early as in the third quarter of this year, when about 140 000 people will need food assistance.
Pakistan’s cricket chief said on Wednesday it was time for the national team to move on after Jamaican police revealed that coach Bob Woolmer was not murdered after all, and died of natural causes. Nasim Ashraf, chairperson of the Pakistan Cricket Board, said he was glad to see the end of a ”traumatic” three months.
The Wall Street Journal, whose parent Dow Jones is the target of a -billion takeover offer by News Corporaiton, is set to shake up its newsroom by reassigning and replacing several top editors, the New York Times reported on its website.
A teenage Chinese gymnast who broke her neck at the national championships on Sunday is likely to be at least partially paralysed for life, according to state media. Wang Yan (15) fell into a coma after landing head-first on the mat after catching her leg during the dismount from the uneven bars.
The case of former spy boss Billy Masetlha was rolled over to Thursday because some of the assessors in the case could not make it to court. Chief state prosecutor Matric Luphondo said the disruption of public transport due to the public-service strike meant that some of the assessors could not reach work.
South Africa’s Telkom, Africa’s biggest telecoms company, posted a 1% decline in annual headline earnings per share on Wednesday, as operating expenses jumped. South Africa’s fixed-line operator said headline EPS fell to 1 710,7 cents in the year to end March, below analysts’ expectations.
Bickering African countries threw an international trade conference into deadlock over whether to ease an 18-year ban on ivory sales, with opponents warning it will increase the poaching threat in countries where elephants have almost disappeared.
”Criminals do not deliberately target US citizens or other foreigners, but seek targets of opportunity and select those who appear to have anything of value. Pickpocketing is widespread.” The United States state department’s advice for travellers to Albania is presumably not intended for the leader of the free world being escorted by a phalanx of bodyguards.
The highest ranking United Nations official in Israel has warned that American pressure has ”pummelled into submission” the United Nations’s role as an impartial Middle East negotiator in a confidential report. The 53-page End of Mission Report by Alvaro de Soto presents a devastating account of failed diplomacy.