Fraud and theft made up the bulk of financial misconduct cases reported in the 2004/2005 financial year, the Public Service Commission said on Thursday. The highest number of cases were reported by national departments, which had 39% of the 513 cases of financial misconduct. The Free State and Eastern Cape reported 10% each.
Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi on Thursday refused to resign despite a mass exodus of Cabinet ministers and mounting criticism over the deployment of Ethiopian troops to protect his feeble 18-month-old administration. Government spokesperson Abdirahman Mohamed Nur Dinari said Gedi was instead working to replace the 36 ministers who have quit in the past week.
New outbreaks of bird flu in Thailand and Laos are fanning fears the disease is flaring up again in Asia, although concerns the virus was mutating in Indonesia have subsided. In Vietnam, which has not reported any outbreak of the H5N1 virus in poultry in the last seven months, a 35-year-old man was hospitalised in the southern province of Kien Giang.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.