South Africa’s ruling African National Congress has extended its heartfelt condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of the four members of the South African Police Service who died in a confrontation with armed criminals in Jeppestown on Sunday.
A British man arrested in Morocco in connection with Britain’s biggest-ever cash robbery is a well-known cage fighter with his own website, police said on Monday. Lee ”Lightning” Murray (26) from Sidcup in south London was detained in the Moroccan capital Rabat on Sunday over the daring heist four months ago at a Securitas warehouse in Tonbridge.
Northern Cape Premier Dipuo Peters has undergone major abdominal surgery at the city’s Kimberley Hospital Complex, a provincial health official said on Monday. ”The procedure was successful and she is recuperating satisfactorily,” Dr Dion Theys, medical director at the Kimberley hospital, said on Monday afternoon.
Nearly five-million people in South Africa are totally illiterate, Minister of Education Naledi Pandor said on Monday. Another 4,9-million South Africans were functionally literate — people who dropped out of school before grade seven. Pandor said the figures were compiled by a ministerial committee she appointed to help find the best way to tackle illiteracy.
According to information obtained from a DA parliamentary question, only 52% of South Africans infected with TB are treated successfully, compared with the World Health Organisation’s target of 85%, the DA’s spokesperson on health, Dianne Kohler-Barnard, said in a statement on Monday.
The case against an IT salesperson involved in an alleged hoax e-mail conspiracy within the African National Congress was postponed in the Pretoria Regional Court on Monday. Muziwendoda Sikhona Kunene, who stands accused of contravening the Intelligence Services Oversight Act will again appear in court on July 14.
Torrential rain has triggered flooding and power outages throughout the Washington region, shutting down some federal offices and disrupting transport links to the United States capital on Monday. Commuters faced long delays around Washington after rain pounded the east coast overnight.
Peace talks aimed at finally ending Burundi’s civil war foundered on Monday as the country’s last active rebel group stormed out of the negotiations, officials said. A senior Tanzanian official participating in the discussions between Bujumbura and the National Liberation Forces said the rebels walked out after threats from South African mediators.
Six months after being convicted of the theft of a lion cub, a Cato Ridge man was charged in Pietermaritzburg on Monday with stealing an endangered 75-year-old giant Seychelles tortoise from the same complainant, the Natal Lion Park Zoo. Two sangomas allegedly bought the tortoise — presumably to use as muti.
Iran has threatened to allow traffickers to flood Europe with narcotics unless its costly border-security operation is given a massive hike in United Nations funding. The Islamic republic’s new anti-drugs head said Iran had asked the UN Office on Drugs and Crime for a hefty -million in order to combat smugglers from neighbouring Afghanistan and Pakistan.