Detained Niger Delta warlord Mujahid Dokubo Asari on Wednesday demanded the immediate release of a German oil worker taken prisoner last week by militants, an associate said in a statement. Didone Shephard, an employee of oil service firm Bilfinger and Berger, was kidnapped along with his driver in the southern oil city of Port Harcourt last Thursday.
Thailand on Wednesday declared bird flu a national threat and vowed united efforts to tackle the deadly virus, which has claimed 16 lives since its first outbreak here in 2004. ”Bird flu is a national threat. If we fail to contain the outbreak of bird flu, it could spell disaster for our country,” Deputy Prime Minister Chidchai Vanasathidya told a meeting of about 260 local officials.
The suggested scrapping of the floor-crossing law must be expanded to accommodate other electoral changes that will give voters a greater say in who their president will be, says United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa. Even the poorest countries in the world have done away with the system applied in South Africa, he said.
Zimbabwe security agents have seized more than Z-trillion in old banknotes at the country’s main airport in a drive against money laundering, state media reported on Wednesday. The official Herald newspaper said the agents intercepted the money at Harare International airport on Tuesday as it was being smuggled back into the country.
Fifty years after 20 000 women marched on Pretoria to protest against the pass laws, women are marching again. Wednesday is the 50th anniversary of the women’s march on the Union Buildings to protest against the extension of pass laws to black women. Thousands of people gathered at Strijdom Square on Wednesday morning.
In its glory days, the aluminum-and-steel hulk that sits outside the Alabama space museum was a training ground for astronauts who flew in the United States’s first space station. Today, the full-size training mock-up of Skylab is slowly rotting away after spending years on display at the US Space and Rocket Centre.
Painter Andree Ruellan, who painted some of her most memorable work from visits to the southern United States during the Depression era, has died in Kingston. She was 101. A friend, Daniel Gelfand, confirmed that Ruellan died on July 15. She lived for many years in Shady, New York, near Woodstock.
Louise Simone Bennett-Coverly, a Jamaican poet and folklorist who popularised her country’s culture before its independence from Britain, died on July 27. She was 86. Known in her native Caribbean country as ”Miss Lou”, Bennett-Coverly advocated the teaching of Jamaican culture.
Fantasy author David Gemmell, known for his adventure tales revolving around heroism and leadership, died on July 28, his publisher said. He was 57. Gemmell had quadruple heart bypass surgery two weeks before, and died in the hospital according to his publisher, Transworld Publishers.
Zimbabwe is this week expected to seal a -million deal with Russia for the supply of five Ilyushin and Tupolev commercial airplanes as President Robert Mugabe’s government steps up efforts to strengthen economic ties with East European and Asian countries, sources told independent news service ZimOnline.