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.
Former Norwegian prime minister Lars Korvald died early on Tuesday aged 90, his Christian Democratic party announced. Korvald served as the party’s first prime minister in a centrist coalition government with the Centre Party and the Liberal Party between October 1972 and October 1973.
Authorities in Kenya said on Tuesday they had smashed a massive fraud ring that was bilking the country’s famed national parks and wildlife reserves of millions of dollars in entrance fees each year. At least 75 people, including employees of the Kenya Wildlife Service, tour guides and operators have been arrested, they said.
The United States government is stepping in to wash potty mouths and clothe exposed bodies on the national airwaves, with new fines that increase penalties tenfold for violating decency standards. The new measures, signed into law in mid-June by President George Bush, culminate years of pressure from religious conservative groups to ”clean up” the airwaves.
Officials said on Tuesday they had recovered the black box that could confirm government speculation that excess speed caused a metro-train accident in Valencia, in which 41 people were killed. ”The black box has been found and is in the hands of our agents,” said Jose Ramon Garcia Anton, head of infrastructure in the regional government.
French arms dealer Thint on Tuesday lost its application to have a search warrant declared invalid and documents seized from its offices by the Scorpions returned. The search-and-seizure warrants, granted by Judge President Bernard Ngoepe, form part of the Scorpions’ investigation into allegations of corruption, money laundering, fraud and related offences.
Well-known Zimbabwean opposition legislator Trudy Stevenson has been attacked with stones and a machete by youths belonging to a rival opposition faction, reports in Harare said on Tuesday. Stevenson had to be rushed to a private Harare hospital on Sunday after the attack, which left her with a deep gash to her head.
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Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s former deputy president, took aim at the media on Monday, suing publishers, editors, reporters, a cartoonist and newspapers for their coverage and comment of his rape trial. The defamation claims run into hundreds of millions of rands, much of it directed at reporters and editors of Independent Newspapers.
South African President Thabo Mbeki, supported by Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Minister of Sport Makhenkesi Stofile, will pay a working visit to Berlin, Germany from Friday to Sunday, where the president will hold discussions with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The Pentagon said on Monday it had charged a former United States soldier with raping and killing a young woman in Iraq and killing three members of her family in what may prove one of the most incendiary war crimes investigations since the invasion in 2003.