Diarrhoea has killed 150 people and infected nearly 12Â 000 in flood-ravaged Ethiopia, the United Nations said on Monday, as aid agencies and governments struggled to deliver food and supplies to tens of thousands left homeless. Flash floods that began swamping villages and towns earlier this month have already killed about 900 people.
United States President George Bush called on Monday for the urgent deployment of a United Nations peacekeeping force to southern Lebanon to shore up a week-old truce between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas. He said there will be another UN resolution on the rules for such a force. ”First things first will be to get the rules of engagement clear,” he told a news conference in Washington.
Former LeisureNet boss Peter Gardener on Monday conceded that he should have disclosed his interest in a German gym operation that LeisureNet bought out. Gardener was being cross-examined in the Cape High Court on issues of corporate governance in LeisureNet and its previous incarnation, the Health and Racquet Club Group.
Eleven people have been charged in connection with a suspected plot to blow up airliners over the Atlantic, British officials said on Monday. Peter Clarke, head of London police’s anti-terrorist branch, said police had seized bomb-making equipment and ”martyrdom videos” during intensive searches.
Seismic monitoring networks need to be improved and monitoring should continue, a panel examining seismic events in gold-mining areas said on Monday. The panel was appointed after the 5,3-magnitude quake in Stilfontein last year that killed two people and injured several dozen others.
Police were ”worried” on Monday after a fifth man allegedly involved in the burglary of a Benoni police safe was killed, a spokesperson said. One of the three police officers arrested in connection with the theft, 40-year-old Inspector Khomani Robert Mashele, was gunned down in his Kempton Park home early on Monday morning.
Former African National Congress chief whip Tony Yengeni is to begin serving time in prison for fraud this week after his final bid to challenge his 2003 sentence failed on Monday. The Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein dismissed his application for leave to appeal against the four-year prison sentence.
Smoking scenes in Tom and Jerry cartoons are now banned in Britain, following a viewer’s complaint to the government agency that polices the airwaves. In one episode of the classic United States cartoon series, Tom is seen smoking a roll-up cigarette in a bid to impress a female cat.
Inner Johannesburg and its surrounding areas suffered an electricity blackout on Monday, Johannesburg City Power said. Spokesperson Kgaladi Ncube said the blackout was traced back to a substation and that there was a problem with one of the transformers. ”Areas in the north and south-east of Johannesburg were affected.”
A photograph stored on a hijacker’s cellphone has led to his arrest, Ekurhuleni metro police said on Monday. Metro spokesperson Vusi Mabanga said a man was robbed of his Volkswagen Golf at gunpoint in Reiger Park on the East Rand on Friday. On Saturday, the victim and his friend searched for the stolen vehicle.