A United Nations human rights mission on Monday accused Sudan’s government of orchestrating and taking part in war crimes in Darfur and called for urgent international action. The UN mission, led by Nobel peace prize laureate Jody Williams, was dispatched by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate charges of widespread abuse in Sudan’s vast western region.
South Africa is struggling to contain an outbreak of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) is sending a permanent staff member to help, reported the Lancet. The medical journal said the WHO TB expert would advise the Health Department on how to deal with the outbreak of the often-fatal XDR-TB.
Syria called for an unrestricted dialogue with Washington on Monday as a senior United States official made the highest-level visit to Damascus in two years for talks limited to the Iraqi refugee crisis. Ellen Sauerbrey, Assistant Secretary of State for Refugees and Migration, discussed the plight of the refugees, who now number about two million among Iraq’s neighbours.
A number of former Fidentia employees have gathered outside the Cape Town offices of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported on Monday. About 80 retrenched workers want the body’s intervention into what they call ”unfair labour practices” by the company’s interim curators.
A German court was forced on Monday to postpone the end of a civil case featuring Gustav the ostrich whose owner claims was made impotent by firecrackers thrown into his enclosure. The court in the eastern town of Bautzen had hoped to find an agreement between the owner and three teenagers suspected of throwing the fireworks in 2005.
A Chinese lawmaker has proposed a "dog tax" to help discourage skyrocketing ownership of the pets and pay for faeces clean-up and rabies prevention, state media reported on Monday. Dog ownership is on the rise in China as urbanites find room in their increasingly comfortable lives for the status symbol of a pet.
Twenty-seven people were injured on Monday when a Bangladeshi airliner was forced to abort its take-off from Dubai, prompting the closure of the region’s busiest airport for more than seven hours. The Bangladesh Airlines plane was about to take off from the bustling Gulf emirate to Dhaka when the accident occurred.
Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon on Monday called on President Thabo Mbeki to urgently review the government’s approach to Zimbabwe after Sunday’s arrest of opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai. The South Africa government should condemn this latest crackdown on a legitimate democratic protest, he said.
South Africa’s Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) has scored a major breakthrough with the taxi business fraternity in what could culminate in the registration of more than 40Â 000 taxi operators in Gauteng alone, according to a release from the Labour Department on Monday.
Lawyers demanded access to Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Monday after his arrest, along with dozens of supporters, when riot police crushed an anti-government demonstration in Harare. Tsvangirai has not been allowed to see either legal representatives or medics since he was arrested on Sunday.