South Africa’s language education policy has after nine years not yet been put into effect ”convincingly”, Education Minister Naledi Pandor said on Monday. ”Resources have not been made available in amounts that would give effect to the policy,” Pandor told the Language Colloquium in Cape Town.
At least nine soldiers and 35 Tamil rebels were killed on Monday in a major battle for control of a disputed waterway in north-eastern Sri Lanka, defence officials said. Nine troopers, including an officer, were killed in mortar bombs attacks while another 15 soldiers were wounded, officials said.
South Africa’s cricket selectors on Monday named wicket-keeper Mark Boucher as captain for the limited-overs tri-series against India and hosts Sri Lanka next month. Boucher will lead a 14-man squad for the August 14 to 29 event, replacing Ashwell Prince who is captain for the ongoing Test series against Sri Lanka in place of the injured Graeme Smith.
Hundreds of Somalis rallied in support of Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi on Monday after he survived a confidence vote, narrowly averting the collapse of his fragile interim government. Shouting his name and carrying placards reading: ”Long live Gedi’s government”, crowds of supporters marched in the provincial town of Baidoa.
While conditions remain for a possible investor-led — and probably short-lived — return to levels of more than $700 before year-end, there are more substantial grounds for gold prices to drift sideways to down over the year, Natexis Commodity Markets said in its precious-metals outlook on Monday.
Members of the trade union Solidarity on Monday joined striking National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) members at mining group Kumba. Solidarity held mandate meetings with its members earlier in the day and a salary offer received from Kumba on Friday was rejected.
Gunmen wearing uniforms of Iraqi security forces kidnapped 25 people from an office in central Baghdad in broad daylight on Monday, police said. The gunmen pulled up in 15 four-wheel-drive vehicles and kidnapped employees and customers at the office on a street in Arasat, once a thriving commercial district.
South Africa recorded a deficit of R4,219-billion for its trade with non-Southern African Customs’ Union trading partners in June after a deficit of R7,005-billion in May, according to customs and excise figures released on Monday. The trade balance was expected to have narrowed to a R2,5-billion deficit in June, a survey has found.
Leaders of Zimbabwe’s opposition political parties, civic society and churches have called for "democratic confrontation and mass resistance" to force President Robert Mugabe to accept sweeping political reforms, raising the stakes in the troubled Southern African country.
A mammoth vote count was in swing in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday after the war-ravaged country’s first free elections in 46 years. Current President Joseph Kabila is the favourite to win but the DRC, and neighbours with vast vested interests, will have to wait until August 31 for the result of Sunday’s first-round vote.