North Korea celebrated with a grand parade on Wednesday the 75th birthday of its ”invincible” army, which experts say is capable of dealing a quick and devastating blow, but is hollow at the core. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il reviewed the parade of military hardware and goose-stepping soldiers through central Pyongyang.
British firefighters said on Wednesday they had come to a boy’s rescue after he got a toilet seat stuck on his head, which he couldn’t get off. The toddler, aged two-and-a-half, and his mother walked into a fire station in Braintree, Essex, on Tuesday saying the boy had put his head through a small trainer seat for the toilet and now could not remove it.
Teenage girls, many of them in school uniforms, are flocking to Port Elizabeth’s Dora Nginza Hospital to have abortions, the media reported on Wednesday. It said more than 160 abortions were performed at the Dora Nginza Hospital last month. A health worker said on Tuesday there was an alarming increase in girls under the age of 18 going to the hospital for abortions.
Former United States president Bill Clinton embraced Boris Yeltsin’s widow with one of his trademark hugs on Wednesday as he paid his last respects to the man with whom he formed a diplomatic double act in the 1990s. Yeltsin’s widow and two daughters sat beside his open coffin as a stream of serving and past Russian politicians and foreign guests filed past.
The owner of the Teazers chain of strip clubs, Lolly Jackson, described the South African crime rate as ”a joke” after being robbed at gunpoint for the third time. ”The crime rate in South Africa is a joke. Crime is a joke, it is something beyond me,” Jackson said on Wednesday. The Teazers boss was speaking after an incident on Sunday in which he was robbed.
The retail price of all grades of petrol will rise by 34 cents per litre (c/l) from May 2, the Department of Minerals and Energy said on Wednesday. The latest changes bring the retail price of a litre of 95 octane unleaded petrol in Gauteng to 701c/l and to 677c/l at the coast. During the period under review, the average international product price of petrol increased.
It will be an intriguing rehearsal of next week’s Absa Cup semifinal when Premier Soccer League champions Mamelodi Sundowns square up to Telkom Knockout Cup champions Silver Stars at the Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace in Rustenburg on Wednesday night.
Dozens of foreign and Palestinian journalists demonstrated at Gaza’s border with Israel on Wednesday to demand the release of a BBC reporter missing, and presumed kidnapped, in the territory for 45 days. Scotsman Alan Johnston (44), the only foreign correspondent based full-time in Gaza, has not been heard of since his car was found abandoned on March 12.
South African transport utility Transnet on Wednesday launched the sale process for the Blue Train — the group’s hotel-on-wheels train. The disposal is part of Transnet’s transformation into a focused freight transport and logistics company. In terms of the competitive public-bidding process, launched on Wednesday, investors are being invited to express their interest.
The South African Weather Service has warned beach revellers to brace themselves for chilly conditions over the country’s coastal areas during this long weekend. Mark Todd, a forecaster from the National Forecast Centre, said on Wednesday that it was going to be cold and windy over the Southern parts [of the country].