Israeli tanks crossed into the Gaza Strip on Tuesday near a key crossing point where about 150 Palestinians have been trapped while trying to flee from the territory since Hamas Islamists took it over. An Israeli army spokesperson said the tanks entered Gaza to protect the Erez crossing.
The case of the father of notorious prison escapee Annanias Mathe was postponed in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday. Although Zaphanias Mathe (80), a Mozambican, was granted R500 bail, he has yet to renew his permit to stay in South Africa, which has expired. For this reason he will be remanded in custody as he is still an illegal immigrant.
The multiparty committee that will inquire into whether Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool misled the legislature will hold open hearings next Monday, its chairperson said. Since its April 20 appointment, the committee has held closed meetings to finalise procedure and fine-tune the timetable.
Two days of fierce fighting between gunmen loyal to Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and Iraqi police have killed 35 people and wounded 125 in the southern city of Nassiriya, a hospital doctor said on Tuesday. The clashes erupted on Sunday night when police attacked a Sadr office in Nassiriya in an apparent response to an attack that wounded a local police commander.
An indefinite curfew has been imposed in Lesotho’s capital, Maseru, following a series of attacks by gunmen targeting senior political figures and their bodyguards, police said on Tuesday. ”The announcement follows a series of attacks made on ministers and their bodyguards since June 11,” police spokesperson Inspector Pheello Mphana said.
A United Nations-backed war-crimes tribunal for Sierra Leone will on Wednesday hand down its first verdict over atrocities during the African nation’s decade civil war in which 120Â 000 people died. The case involves three renegade soldiers-turned-rebels, allegedly supported by former Liberian president Charles Taylor.
Australia lock Nathan Sharpe threw down the gauntlet to the in-form Springboks on Tuesday, saying South Africa were over-confident and the Wallabies would relish playing them on home turf. Sharpe said he was pleased with Australia’s performance during a 22-19 loss to South Africa in the Tri-Nations series opener in Cape Town on Saturday.
Chris Harmse, Africa’s leading hammer thrower, recorded a good win at the Folksam Grand Prix in Karlskrona, Sweden, on Monday. His winning distance of 75,05m was his best of 2007 and better than the B qualifying distance for this year’s World Championships in Osaka.
The prospect of playing in next year’s Africa Cup of Nations finals now looms as a fait accompli for South Africa — but not without Bafana Bafana coming back to earth with a rude bump in Sunday’s 1-1 qualifying draw against Congo in Pointe Noire.
Paul Collingwood’s hundred on his Durham home ground left England with the advantage in the fourth and final Test against the West Indies on Monday. At stumps on the fourth day, the West Indies — after Matthew Hoggard had reduced them to 15-2 — were 83-3 in their second innings, a deficit of 30 runs.