Pirates have attacked two United Nations-chartered vessels in the Malacca Strait off the coast of tsunami-hit Aceh province in Indonesia, an international maritime watchdog said on Tuesday. Both ships were ferrying construction materials to Indonesia for the UN’s World Food Programme when pirates boarded the ships under the cover of darkness on Sunday.
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Football’s world governing body will help South Africa organise the 2010 World Cup but believes the country is more than capable of staging the event, Fifa president Sepp Blatter said on Tuesday. ”South Africa is a multi-cultural country of different tribes … and you do need a certain kind of intelligence to bring this all together,” Blatter said.
Spiralling fuel costs, a strike and a later-than-planned introduction of new routes saw South African Airways’ (SAA) operating profit for the year ended March dwindle from R1-billion to just R300-million, it was revealed on Tuesday. Fuel costs rocketed by a whopping 51,5% over the 12-month period, resulting in a 17,7% spike in operating expenses.
The Democratic Alliance has demanded that the Minister of Safety and Security, Charles Nqakula, and the national commissioner of police immediately make public the broad topics for discussion at their meetings and what steps they envisage in the fight against crime, DA spokesperson on safety and security Roy Jankielsohn said on Tuesday.
The recent spate of violent criminal attacks has raised South Africa’s security threat profile, the South African Chamber of Business (Sacob) said on Tuesday. ”They are concerns that pervade both business and public sentiment, and reflect the low level of public confidence in the criminal justice system,” Sacob said in a media statement.
Uganda will enter talks with leaders of the notorious Lord’s Resistance Army guerrillas without preconditions if they give up arms and denounce war, a government spokesperson said on Tuesday. The government will also be willing to pardon rebel commander Joseph Kony and his four commanders who are wanted for trial by the United Nation’s International Criminal Court.
A Vietnamese company plans to turn catfish fat into biofuel to run diesel engines, with industrial-scale production set to start next year, an official of the firm said Tuesday. Catfish exporter Agifish said it had won government approval to build a factory in the southern Mekong delta province of An Giang in 2007 and produce about 10-million litres of the fuel per year.
Violence in Western Cape club rugby reared its head again when spectators, including a knife-wielding man, invaded a rugby field in Clanwilliam, the Argus reported on Tuesday. Its website said the fight broke out towards the end of the game between the Clanwilliam Rugby Club and the Delicious club of Clanwilliam on Saturday.
Renowned Turkish-American record producer Arif Mardin, who worked with the likes of Barbra Streisand, Queen and David Bowie, has died of pancreatic cancer in New York at the age of 74, his family said in Istanbul on Monday. Mardin produced music legends such as Aretha Franklin, Bette Midler, Diana Ross, the Bee Gees and Phil Collins.
The Department of Labour has issued an ultimatum to its employees, who earlier on Tuesday embarked on an unprotected strike, to resume work or face disciplinary action. The staff members of the Compensation Fund and the Unemployment Insurance Fund have downed tools over the department’s decision to phase out an incentive bonus scheme.