Zimbabwe’s government on Monday shrugged off an appeal by the country’s Roman Catholic bishops for democratic reform while an opposition activist lay in critical condition in hospital after being shot, reportedly by police. Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said he ”respects” the bishops’ opinion.
The R6,5-million trip for elite police and defence force members to the Caribbean to provide added security at the Cricket World Cup was disgraceful, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Monday. ”The inference here is that members of the special task force plus specialists … will not be missed in this country,” it said.
Cash-strapped Zimbabwe is now forcing all motor-vehicle importers to pay their excise duty in foreign currency, the state-run Herald reported on Monday. Finance Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi has ordered that the new rule takes effect immediately after declaring the change in a government gazette, according to the newspaper.
Baghdad was under curfew on Monday, the fourth anniversary of the fall of the capital to United States forces, as Iraqis gathered in the city of Najaf for a big anti-US protest called by fiery cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. ”No, no, to the occupation; no, no to America,” thousands of marching Iraqis chanted as they marched through the southern city.
Ten days after violently awakening, a volcano on the Indian Ocean island of Réunion continued spewing lava on Sunday in what experts called ”the eruption of the century”. But the Piton de la Fournaise volcano on eastern Réunion, a French overseas department, had lulled considerably.
Cartoonist Johnny Hart, whose award-winning BC comic strip appeared in more than 1Â 300 newspapers worldwide, died at his New York state home on Saturday. He was 76. BC, populated by prehistoric cavemen and dinosaurs, was launched in 1958.
Voters in East Timor cast their ballots on Monday in a presidential election they hope will pull them from a cycle of violence and political tension that has paralysed efforts to rebuild one of the world’s poorest nations. It is the first poll since the former Portuguese colony declared independence in 2002.
A museum honouring the first man to walk on the moon is not afraid to confront conspiracy theorists who argue his 1969 lunar landing was a hoax. ”If it takes a controversy to get them here, that’s fine with us,” said Andrea Waugh, an education specialist at the Armstrong Air and Space Museum.
Working hard at the office is not enough to warrant a promotion in one Chinese county, where a new rule says government employees must also be nice to their parents, state press reported on Monday. Assessment teams interview officials’ relatives, neighbours and colleagues to determine if they are caring towards their mother and father.
About 124 000 people have fled the volatile Somali capital, Mogadishu, in the past two months as violence escalated in the war-torn city, the United Nations refugee agency said on Sunday. About one-10th of them fled in the past week alone, with the majority deserting Mogadishu last month.