Tuberculosis cases are rising rapidly in the Mozambican coastal town of Beira, according to local doctors.
A Ukrainian swimming coach has been banned from making contact with his daughter after they were filmed fighting in Melbourne in what a leading athlete called another example of ”that ugly parent syndrome”. Mikhail Zubkov (38) was thrown out of the World Swimming Championships and police issued a domestic violence order against him.
Insurgents with two chlorine truck bombs attacked a local government building in Fallujah, western Iraq, on Wednesday and 15 Iraqi and United States security forces were injured, the US military said. It said no Iraqi or US. forces were killed in what it called a ”complex attack” using mortars and small arms as well as the truck bombs.
Iran’s detention of British sailors and marines was unacceptable and illegal and further diplomatic pressure is needed on Tehran to secure their immediate release, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Wednesday. ”There is no justification whatsoever. It is completely unacceptable, wrong and illegal,” he said.
South Africa’s Solidarity union members propose to go on strike at Milnerton Maritime Radio, a unit of fixed-line phone company Telkom, which could affect shipping off the Cape coast, the union said on Wednesday. Solidarity said it has told the company of its decision to strike from midnight on Wednesday.
Cape Town’s rates and service charges are to increase by an average of 15%, mayor Helen Zille said on Wednesday. She said electricity charges would increase by an average of 5,6%, solid waste removal charges by 11%, and water and sanitation by 19%.
Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was arrested on Wednesday in a raid at the headquarters of his Movement for Democratic Change in Harare, a party spokesperson said. Tsvangirai and about 20 administrative members of staff were detained by members of President Robert Mugabe’s security services.
Kenya invited expressions of interest on Wednesday from companies seeking to buy a 26% stake in Telkom Kenya, a state-owned landline company, as a strategic partner. The government said it also intended to sell off a further 34% of Telkom in an initial public offering once the strategic partner was on board.
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Pakistan cricket board officials suspect that the death of coach Bob Woolmer was due to natural causes and that the Jamaican police acted hastily by declaring it a murder. A senior official of the board said they had received information that there could have been mistakes in the first autopsy on Woolmer’s body.
The South Africa Bus Employers’ Association (Sabea) said all staff reported for duty on Wednesday morning in accordance with a Labour Court ruling, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported. On Tuesday, the court granted an interim order in favour of Sabea preventing a strike planned for Wednesday. This means that any strike will now be unprotected and illegal.