Burundi has arrested an eighth person in a suspected plot to overthrow the Central African nation’s government in a bloody coup, an intelligence source said on Thursday. The authorities say they have evidence that former high-ranking politicians and a dissident rebel leader — all arrested this week — planned to kill President Pierre Nkurunziza in June with military support.
Labour union Solidarity welcomed on Thursday a pay offer made by Kumba resources as a ”fair step in the right direction” but was still awaiting a mandate from its members. Spokesperson Reint Dykema said: ”The 7,75% pay hike increase for higher earners and 8,75% for lower categories made on Wednesday would simply maintain employees at the level at which they were before.
Unless alternative sources of funding are found, the high demands on the National Skills Fund are threatening the future of small, micro and medium enterprises in need of skills and employment-creating mechanisms, said Minister Labour Membathisi Mdladlana.
Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa has won applause from foreign donors for his economic and anti-corruption record. But while Zambia has avoided the kind of strife that has plagued some of its neighbours, that hasn’t made its politics any more predictable. Mwanawasa is now seeking a second term in a September 28 poll whose outcome is far from certain.
Rome’s Catholic, Muslim and Jewish leaders have united to condemn pop star Madonna’s decision to stage a mock-crucifixion when she performs in the Italian capital on Sunday a stone’s throw away from Vatican City. The lapsed-Catholic diva’s latest irreverent performance sees her wearing a fake crown of thorns and descending cross as part of her worldwide Confessions Tour.
Emergency services are mopping up after the floods in George, the municipality said on Thursday. Acting George municipal manager Godfrey Louw said damage to infrastructure was estimated at between R11-million and R12-million. Four people died when their vehicle was swept away on Tuesday when a bridge collapsed in Conville and a fifth person was still missing.
The array of massive black flags with single white stars fluttering in the Caribbean breeze gives the impression of a pirate fleet at full sail. Nothing better symbolises the confrontation between Cuba and the United States than the display on the waterfront of Havana outside the seven-storey building that houses the United States Interests Section.
Police in the German city of Aachen received an unusual call for help late on Wednesday when a woman telephoned to complain her husband was not fulfilling his sexual obligations. After the couple had been sleeping in separate beds for several months without intimate contact, the 44-year-old woman woke the husband (45) in the middle of the night and demanded he satisfy her needs.
Israeli public support for the war on Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon has been so overwhelming it has become hard to tell the doves from the hawks in the Jewish state’s fractious society.
The Nigerian government on Wednesday dismissed three senior officials at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (Luth), where a baby was infected with HIV/Aids. Health Minister Eyitayo Lambo said Luth’s chief medical director, chief medical laboratory scientist and an official in haematology department of the hospital had all been sacked over the incident.