South Africa’s proposals to clamp down on ”canned hunting”, or the killing of captive animals, will be useless unless the laws are clear and properly enforced, an animal welfare group said on Monday. ”The loopholes will be exploited,” said Neil Greenwood, Southern African spokesperson of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
Twelve people were killed and four left in a critical condition when a tour bus overturned near Kroonstad on Monday, Free State police said. Captain Rosa Benade said 35 people were treated for serious injuries on the accident scene and moved to the Boithumelo and Kroon hospitals.
United States President George Bush on Monday warned Iran of "progressively stronger political and economic sanctions" if Tehran refuses to freeze sensitive nuclear activities in return for talks. "If Iran’s leaders want peace and prosperity … they should accept our offer," Bush said in a speech to the US Merchant Marine Academy.
The police on Monday defended the conduct of the special task force aboard the South African Airways (SAA) plane that was subject to a hijacking attempt on the weekend. ”Obviously, from the police side, it is regrettable that some passengers feel they have been traumatised, but at the end of the day their safety was the primary concern,” spokesperson Director Sally de Beer said.
Representatives of striking security guards and industry employers were meeting at the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration on Monday afternoon in the latest efforts to end the pay dispute. ”They are now meeting,” South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union spokesperson Ronnie Mamba said.
Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick, the architect of United States-China policy and Washington’s point man on Sudan, resigned on Monday to take up a position with Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs. "It is time for me to step down," Zoellick told a news conference at the State Department, with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice by his side.
Support for a third term for President Thabo Mbeki has not cost South African National Civics Organisation (Sanco) leader Mlungisi Hlongwane his job. National executive committee member Donovan Williams said a Business Day article reporting that Hlongwane and deputy general secretary Master Mahlobogoane had been suspended was wrong.
New fire trucks bought by Cape Town’s municipality are put together with ”pop rivets”, a probe into the state of city’s overstretched fire services has been told. The claim is contained in an interim report, made public on Monday, by a committee headed by councillor Debbie Schafer.
Militiamen loyal to Somalia’s Islamic courts raided cinemas, switched off the generators and expelled audiences watching the World Cup, before announcing that showing Western films in public had been banned, officials said on Monday. A day before Islamic Sharia law took effect in Jowhar heavily armed Islamic fighters shut down all public cinema halls until further notice.
Somalia’s dominant Islamist militia on Monday imposed Sharia law in the former warlord stronghold of Jowhar, making good on their vows to bring Islamic theocracy to the shattered Horn of Africa nation. The Joint Islamic Courts militia named three hard-line preachers to chair the Jowhar administration.