Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels denied involvement in Thursday’s bus bombing that killed at least 64 passengers and said the blast had been aimed at discrediting them. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rejected government charges that they carried out the morning attack near Kebitigollewa town in the North-Central Province and in turn pointed a finger at the government.
If we were to ask young people who the youth leaders of today are, we would most likely come up with names such as African National Congress Youth League president Fikile Mbalula, Young Communist League national secretary Buti Manamela and … well, who else? They are certainly among the loudest voices we hear purporting to speak for the youth of the country, but where are the others?
Minister of Humours, Vapours and Sulphuric Unguents, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, wants greater control over how foreign government funds are spent fighting HIV/Aids in South Africa. ”Our view is that external funding must be coordinated through government structures to achieve better outcomes,” she told news agencies this week.
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Five years ago, Nkosi Johnson died of Aids at the age of 12 — but his legacy lives on at Nkosi’s Haven, a Johannesburg home for HIV-positive mothers and their babies. Located in the city’s Berea suburb, Nkosi’s Haven has been going for seven years and is now home to more than 90 residents — 14 HIV-positive mothers, 51 children and 26 orphans.
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Defender Radhi Jaidi headed an injury time equaliser on Wednesday as Tunisia scrambled a 2-2 draw with Saudi Arabia, which left both teams waiting for an elusive World Cup win. After a defensive mix-up, forward Zied Jaziri put a high ball into the six-yard box which Jaidi nodded home.
The South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) and security sector employers have deadlocked over an apparent misunderstanding of the terms of a revised wage offer. Jackson Simon, Satawu’s national coordinator for the security industry, said on Wednesday that parties will meet again on Monday in an attempt to iron out the differences.
The South African government repeated denials on Wednesday that the deportation of Pakistani illegal immigrant Khalid Mahmood Rashid amounted to unlawful rendition. Rashid’s lawyer Zehir Omar seems bent on portraying the government as breaking its own laws and constitutional provisions, government spokesperson Joel Netshitenzhe said in Cape Town.
Deadly factional violence and the storming of Parliament by protesters on Wednesday threatened to overshadow a new round of cross-party Palestinian talks seeking to cap tensions between Fatah and Hamas. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, leader of the Hamas-led government, in Gaza City.
MPs roasted the Department of Housing on Wednesday for lacking control over its subsidy system, resulting in irregular awards exceeding R300-million to government employees. Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts expressed dismay at the vagueness of answers from director general Itumeleng Kotsoane regarding systemic loopholes.