Unidentified gunmen on Tuesday ambushed an Ethiopian military convoy south of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, sparking a heavy gun battle, wounding at least nine, witnesses said. ”An Ethiopian military convoy that was leaving the airport has been ambushed by gunmen. They used machine guns and RPGs [rocket-propelled grenades],” said Ali Hassan Nur, a resident.
Eight Cape Town traffic officials face criminal charges over what the city said on Tuesday are 229 ”potentially fraudulent” learner’s licences and roadworthy certificates. The irregularities, all committed during the last three months of 2006, were uncovered by the city’s internal investigators and the police.
The child-sex trial of Cezanne Visser, alias advocate Barbie, was postponed on Tuesday because the judge is ill. Judge Essop Patel was recently released from hospital where he was treated for cancer. He started presiding over the case in the Pretoria High Court about two years ago.
The community survey carried out in February yielded a 95,3% response, which is the highest of any survey conducted by Statistics South Africa, deputy director general Kefiloe Masiteng said on Tuesday. Data collected from the 274 344 homes surveyed around the country will now be processed in time for the results to be released at the end of this year.
As Ethiopia and United States coffee shop giant Starbucks fight it out in a high-profile trademark dispute, little notice is being taken of another potential row brewing in the backstreets of a highland town. Owner of a small business Ambes Tewelde has a roaring trade selling about 400 cups a day of fine Ethiopian coffee in a perpetually packed coffee shop named … Starbucks!
After decades of indifference, soccer-mad Italy is finally falling in love with its rugby team after they managed two Six Nations wins in the same season for the first time. Their 23-20 win over Wales on the weekend — two weeks after a 37-17 victory against Scotland — sealed their most successful campaign with one home game against Ireland still to come.
South Africa’s national women’s soccer team have objected to Equatorial Guinea ”bending it like Beckham” by allegedly fielding two male players against them. Banyana Banyana team manager Fran Hilton-Smith said on Tuesday a complaint had been laid with the Confederation of African Football.
The major threat to Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe comes from disgruntled members of his Zanu-PF party upset with his plans to extend his rule rather than the official opposition, according to analysts. Mugabe has attracted widespread international criticism for ordering a brutal crackdown on the opposition.
Residents and businesses in the Amathole district in the Eastern Cape will enjoy high-speed internet access as well as free voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) phone calls within the network by the middle of this year. This is thanks to a new project to roll out WiMAX broadband services in the district.
Rights activists in Kenya have intensified their campaign against a proposed anti-terrorism law — this after a travel advisory issued by the United States warned of possible terrorist attacks in the East African country during the upcoming World Cross-Country Championships.