An opposition boycott threat and bloody clashes with Islamic militants on Wednesday raised tensions ahead of Nigeria’s presidential election — the most closely watched poll since independence. A group of 18 opposition parties said the national election commission should be disbanded and Saturday’s presidential ballot postponed.
Several thousand people were evacuated after a volcano erupted in southern Colombia, triggering an avalanche that swelled rivers and threatened local communities, authorities said on Wednesday. Tumbling waters carrying trees, rocks and mud forced about 5 000 people to leave their homes for safer ground.
Car bombs killed more than 170 people in Baghdad on Wednesday, hours after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Iraq will take security control of the whole country from foreign forces by the end of the year. One car bomb alone in the mainly Shi’ite al-Sadriya neighbourhood killed 122 people and wounded 155, police said.
The Afrikanerbond on Wednesday welcomed the National African National Congress’s (ANC) stance against the damage to the Great Trek memorial in Standerton, Mpumalanga. ”The Afrikanerbond is heartened by ANC national spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama’s unequivocal message …,” said Afrikanerbond spokesperson Jan Bosman in a statement.
At least 600Â 000 people had accessed services on the upgraded transport information system by 1pm on Wednesday, the Department of Transport said. ”That is phenomenal,” the department’s safety promotions manager, Ntau Letebele, said. Letebele acknowledged that the system was still shaky in some areas like Johannesburg and Pretoria.
Smoking just might have saved the life of a South Carolina woman. Brenda Comer said she had just finished washing dishes on Monday morning and stepped outside to smoke a cigarette when a 24m oak tree crashed through her roof, the Herald reported in its Wednesday editions.
Residents of two buildings in Johannesburg’s inner city are taking an eviction order against them to the Constitutional Court, their lawyers said on Wednesday. About 300 residents have lodged an application for leave to appeal a Supreme Court of Appeal decision that opened the way for city officials to evict them.
Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk has rejected a claim he is doing nothing concrete about climate change, saying plans by the government to deal with the threat of global warming are well in hand. Earlier on Wednesday, the Democratic Alliance claimed the minister was not doing his job in this regard.
Nicolas Sarkozy’s portrayal as a dangerous right-winger who scares voters dominated France’s presidential campaign on Wednesday, forcing the front-runner on to the defensive just four days before first-round polling. ”The worrying Mr Sarkozy” headlined the left-wing daily Liberation.
Nigerian troops killed many Islamic militants in a three-hour battle in the northern city of Kano on Wednesday, an army commander said. Troops surrounded the militants in the Panshekara district of the city early on Wednesday after they had burned a police station and killed 13 officers.