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/ 13 September 2006
Authorities in Zimbabwe staged a massive security operation on Wednesday in a bid to head off a series of banned protests against the economic crisis presided over by veteran President Robert Mugabe. Armed police fanned out across the capital, Harare, conducting body searches and spot checks of cars in scenes repeated in other major towns and cities throughout the country.
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/ 13 September 2006
Militiamen loyal to the fundamentalist Islamic group that appears determined to rule Somalia are advancing on one of the last-remaining commercial ports outside of their control, a European Union official said on Wednesday. Several hundred militiamen loyal to the Islamic group have been seen travelling to Kismayo, about 500km south of the capital, Mogadishu, the official and witnesses said.
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/ 13 September 2006
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has categorically denied persecuting his deputy, Atiku Abubakar, who is under investigation on charges of alleged corruption. ”Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has alleged political persecution and all sorts of things. That is far-fetched by all standards,” the Presidency said in Obasanjo’s first official statement on the issue late on Tuesday.
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/ 13 September 2006
The strikes conducted by the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) in 2006 came at a ”huge” financial cost, the union’s general secretary Randall Howard said on Wednesday. ”It [the cost] was huge, with the level of arrests and bailing out comrades and lawyers,” he said at Satawu’s second national congress in Johannesburg. He declined to mention a figure.
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/ 13 September 2006
A taxi drivers’ protest — part of a strike that left commuters in Soweto and Orange Farm without transport on Wednesday — was illegal, Johannesburg metro police said. ”They did not apply for permission to protest,” said Inspector Edna Mamonyane. On Wednesday morning drivers blocked roads in and around Soweto and forced commuters out of the few taxis that were travelling to Johannesburg.
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/ 13 September 2006
Bovine tuberculosis, an infectious disease mostly confined to cattle but now threatening wildlife around the world, is spreading among buffalo in South Africa’s Kruger National Park, an official said on Wednesday. Tests confirm more of the famed park’s estimated 32 000 buffalo have contracted the chronic wasting disease.
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/ 13 September 2006
Into the painted case went a bottle of red wine, an old floppy disc, a CD and scores of written messages. It was sealed for the next decade, to be opened in 2016. The action of creating the ”time-box” took place at the Highway Africa conference in Grahamstown this week, where hundreds of journalists got together to talk technology, media freedom … and, unusually, media history.
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/ 13 September 2006
Australia captain Ricky Ponting has apologised for a ”serious error of judgement” after confronting umpire Asad Rauf over a wide delivery in their one-day match against the West Indies on Tuesday. Ponting was fined his entire match fee for breaching the International Cricket Council Code of Conduct during his country’s 78-run victory in the first DLF Cup match.
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/ 13 September 2006
Jose Mourinho embraced controversy once again after his Chelsea side’s 2-0 Champions League victory over Werder Bremen on Tuesday, suggesting that there was more to the four bookings his side collected than simply a referee keen to crack down on technical offences.
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/ 13 September 2006
Wallaby back Mat Rogers will switch codes again and join the National Rugby League’s Gold Coast Titans after next year’s Rugby World Cup, the team announced on Wednesday. Rogers will complete contractual obligations to the Australian and New South Wales rugby unions before joining the Titans on a two-year contract worth  000, the team said.