The death toll from the strongest typhoon to hit China in half a century has reached 319 and could rise further, Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday. Much of southern China has been battered by a series of typhoons and tropical storms this year that have now killed about 1 300 people.
Former Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide is welcome to continue his exile in South Africa as long as necessary, according to Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. Dlamini-Zuma on Wednesday said that the open invitation was part of the international process to create ”peace and stability in Haiti”. Aristide fled Haiti in February 2004 amid violent unrest.
The Boland Rugby Union has served charge sheets on the two clubs involved in the match in which Riaan Loots was fatally injured earlier this year. Attorney for the union Chris Faure said on Wednesday that charge sheets had also been served on five players, one spectator and seven officials.
A shortage of about four million doctors and nurses in 60 poor, primarily African countries has become a major obstacle in fighting HIV/Aids, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said. In the announcement made on Tuesday at the International Aids Conference in Toronto, WHO said sub-Saharan Africa has been the worst affected by the shortage.
Further work is required on the accrual accounting format that is being adopted by the South African government, Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel said on Wednesday. He was replying to a question from official opposition Democratic Alliance finance spokesperson Ian Davidson.
There are three moves afoot that add up to a reduced role for autonomous institutions in the communications arena. Should we be worried? As regards the Film and Publications Act, proposed changes seek to scrap an existing provision that has exempted the news media from censorship.
Prominent Eastern Cape politicians and officials believe their cellphone conversations are being tapped or intercepted, Dispatch Online reported on Wednesday. It said at least one has made a formal complaint on the matter to the police. So nervous are senior officials that many now use code names to disguise their conversations when discussing political affairs on their cellphones.
Angola has reinforced troops along its border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), fearing possible unrest in the area after the winners of landmark elections are announced, a top army official said on Wednesday. ”We do not know what could happen in the DRC after the results are announced,” General Geraldo Sachipendo Nunda said on radio.
Final argument over Botswana Bushmen’s rights to ancestral land will be presented in court later in August, Survival International said on Wednesday. The organisation, which has been helping the Bushmen to fight for their rights to hunt and gather in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, said in a statement that the last evidence was heard in May.
A decision to seize white-owned land if negotiations linger or end in deadlock is paying off with more and more farmers accepting the price offered by the state, a top land official said on Wednesday. ”These farmers have become more supportive because we are cracking the whip,” chief land claims commissioner Tozi Gwanya said in an interview.