Murdered seven-year-old Sheldean Human should not be forgotten, and her death should be used as an instrument for ”change in our communities”, mourners said at a memorial service in Pretoria on Tuesday. Sheldean, a grade two pupil at Laerskool Tuinrand, was found murdered on March 5 after she went missing from her Pretoria Gardens home on February 18.
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.
Police in India’s Western state of Gujarat are to wear new uniforms impregnated with the fragrance of flowers and citrus to help improve their image. ”Most policemen look hassled [and] drenched in sweat after coming from any [crime scene],” said Somesh Singh, a designer at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.