The number of people killed on South African roads over the Easter weekend has risen to 181, the Department of Transport said on Monday night. Of the 181 people who lost their lives in 143 crashes, 41 were drivers, 71 were passengers and 69 were pedestrians, spokesperson Ntau Letebele said.
Chad said it routed a major rebel attack launched from Sudan on Monday to destabilise its government, but Khartoum accused Chad’s army of killing 17 of its troops and threatened a strong response. The accusations marked a deterioration in the volatile relations between the two neighbours, marred by violence spilling across the frontier of Sudan’s Darfur region.
The Ethiopian government acknowledged detaining 41 suspected international terrorists from 17 countries and said foreign investigators were given permission to question them, said an official statement published on Tuesday. The statement comes a week after an Associated Press investigation into the transfer of terror suspects from Kenya to Somalia and eventually to Ethiopia.
The fraud and corruption case of former Scorpions boss Geoffrey Ledwaba was postponed for the last time in the Pretoria Commercial Crimes Court on Tuesday. The postponement was to allow Ledwaba to sort out his legal representation matters as he wanted the National Prosecuting Authority to pay for his legal fees.
Asian tourists have begun turning away from Thailand, official statistics show, prompting concern that holidaymakers might be avoiding the kingdom because of its continuing political woes. The number of tourists arriving from East Asia dropped by 7,3% in the first two months of the year.
It’s a dream holiday for anyone willing to spend as much as $500 (about R3Â 560) a day to float through the palm-fringed backwaters of India’s southern Kerala state. Traditional wooden dhows decorated like hotel rooms carry tourists on an idyll through what advertisers are dubbing "God’s own country".
The JSE remained higher at midday on Tuesday as investors hurried to catch up with the United States equities market, which stayed open on Monday. At noon, the all-share index was up 0,61% thanks to the 1,10% rise in resources. The platinum mining index jumped 2,13% but the gold mining index fell 0,14%.
A Zimbabwean opposition activist was in critical condition in hospital in Harare on Monday after being shot several days ago — reportedly by police. Philip Katsande, a provincial official with the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was shot during a police raid on his home late on Thursday, a party spokesperson said.
A South African murdered in Pakistan has been identified as Kenneth Smith (26), the country’s 10km open-water swimming champion, Beeld reported on Tuesday. Smith’s family said they were not aware that he was in Pakistan. He had said he was going to Dubai to look for a job.
A nationwide security alert was issued across Thailand after a bomb exploded outside a Bangkok shopping centre that was also hit in a wave of New Year’s Eve attacks. The device blew up at a telephone booth in front of the Major Cineplex Ratchayothin shopping centre on the northern outskirts of the city late on Monday.