A man was injured at an explosion at an electricity substation in Westdene in Bloemfontein on Tuesday, the electricity distributor Centlec said. ”We are still investigating the cause of the explosion,” said Zolile Lobe, chief executive of Centlec. The injured man was a Centlec employee.
The leaders of Kenya and Ethiopia met on Tuesday to ease mounting tensions along their border where at least 100 people have been killed in tribal attacks over the past three months. In addition, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and visiting Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles al-Zenawi were discussing prospects for restoring stability in their neighbour Somalia, officials said.
South Africa’s Department of Agricultural and Land Affairs has no legislation or policy providing for the settlement of black farmers at the expense of others, Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Lulu Xingwana said on Tuesday. ”Where black farmers are settled on land previously owned by white … farmers, due processes within the constitutional framework … will continue to be followed.”
Former Cape Town City manager Wallace Mgoqi could face a bill of almost R9-million over alleged irregular spending he authorised on a jewellery city project. He could also face criminal charges, mayoral committee member for finance Ian Nielson told a media briefing on Tuesday.
Terrorist activities in Africa are increasing, a counterterrorism conference in Kyalami, north of Johannesburg, heard on Tuesday. The threat is mainly from global terrorist groups seeking refuge, recruits and funds, said David Radcliffe, regional director for Africa in the office of the United States Secretary of Defence.
Tropical Storm Ernesto was moving towards south Florida on Tuesday — the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina — after soaking Cuba with heavy rain. Florida residents lined up for supplies with the approach of Ernesto, which could strengthen over the warm waters of the Florida Straits.
Alabama native Sarah Jane Keith (30) stopped on a desolate street of the New Orleans Lower Ninth Ward where porches had teemed with neighbours a year ago, before Hurricane Katrina. ”I stood in the middle of the street and screamed. I cried. Nobody heard me,” she said.,
One year after Hurricane Katrina battered the United States Gulf Coast and his political standing, President George Bush acknowledged on Monday that a complete recovery was still a long way off. ”There is hope down here, there is still a lot of work to be done,” Bush said.
South Africans had nothing to do with the alleged coup plot in Burundi, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad said on Tuesday. Speaking a day after the Burundian Supreme Court refused an application by the alleged plotters to be released, Pahad denied any South African involvement in the plot.
At least 29 people were killed when a blast ripped through scavengers siphoning petrol from pools around a breach in a disused pipeline in central Iraq late on Monday, health officials said. A reporter at the rural site near Diwaniya, 180km south of Baghdad, saw 15 charred bodies, including that of a boy. The explosion severely wounded 26 people.