European and Asian stocks dropped on Wednesday after Wall Street chalked its second-biggest point decline in four years and rattled already nervous markets worldwide. The tumble came just as international markets were recovering from sharp declines earlier this month.
African leaders, for so long reluctant to speak out about the crisis in Zimbabwe, are finally running out of patience with President Robert Mugabe. Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, suffered a suspected skull fracture, doctors reported on Wednesday after what lawyers and other activists said were savage beatings while in police custody.
Billionaire George Soros pledged -million on Wednesday to fight a deadly strain of tuberculosis in Africa. Since an outbreak of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) was identified in South Africa last year, health experts have repeatedly issued dire warnings about the disease’s spread across the continent.
Black South Africans are six times more likely to get infected with the HI virus than other race groups, the Health Department told an Aids conference on the government’s National Strategic Plan for Aids and Sexually Transmitted Infections 2007-2011 in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
Three media institutions expressed concern on Wednesday that Parliament’s home affairs committee chairperson Patrick Chauke might fast-track the draft Films and Publications Amendment Bill. The South African National Editors’ Forum, the South African chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa and the Freedom of Expression Institute issued a joint statement in this regard.
Killings and attacks in Baghdad have slumped significantly since the launch of a security plan one month ago, United States officials said on Wednesday, even as car bombs claimed more lives in the capital. ”There has been an over 50% reduction in murders and executions” since Operation Fardh al-Qanoon (Imposing Law) began, Major General William Caldwell said.
Furniture shops cannot keep silent about hidden costs when advertising bargains, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said on Wednesday. The authority has ruled against a Furniture City advertisement that did not reflect hidden costs — such as insurance and delivery charges — in its advertised prices.
A Pietermaritzburg family has been forced to vacate its home in Azalea township after it was invaded by snakes, the Witness reported on Wednesday. The newspaper’s website quoted Bongekile Ndlela (42), a mother of five, as saying she first discovered the reptiles on Sunday inside her bedroom. Since then she has killed five of them with the help of a neighbour.
Muslims in South Africa could be incorrectly suspected of being involved terrorism due to comments by intelligence officials that the country has become a haven for terrorists, Muslim organisations warned on Wednesday.
As the African National Congress (ANC) and General Council of the Bar in South Africa expressed concern at the situation in Zimbabwe on Wednesday, the Democratic Alliance said the government’s response to the situation is shameful. ”The ANC is concerned about the current situation in Zimbabwe,” party spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama said.