A concerted effort and not political point-scoring is needed to win the fight against HIV and Aids, the South African Council of Churches (SACC) said on Friday. The biggest challenge facing the church, said the SACC’s Reverend Teboho Klaas, is to support all efforts aimed at fighting the pandemic.
Twenty-seven people were injured, nine seriously, after two minibus taxis collided near Boksburg on Friday afternoon, Ekurhuleni metro police said. Two people were killed and three others seriously injured in an accident on the N12 in Ekurhuleni, near Benoni, on Saturday morning, a metro police media-liaison officer said.
Nepal’s King Gyanendra, who has pledged to ”return sovereignty to the people” after massive and violent street protests, has seen his god-like status badly shaken. Now the question remains whether the wily king can remain on the throne or even whether the monarchy as an institution will survive in the desperately poor nation.
One of three earthquakes that hit Russia’s remote north-eastern Kamchatka peninsula almost completely destroyed three small villages, local authorities were quoted as saying early on Saturday by Interfax news agency. Up to 180 people were evacuated on Saturday from the villages of Korf and Tilichiki.
Nepal’s King Gyanendra vowed to give up power but not the throne on Friday in a last-ditch attempt to placate protesters and win over political parties who want to end the 237-year-old rule of the Shah dynasty. Within minutes, the largest political party, the Nepali Congress, dismissed the king’s gambit.
Two men accused of attempted murder after a brutal racist attack on a German citizen told federal investigators on Friday that they had nothing to do with the assault. ”Both of the accused denied having anything to do with the crime and presented an alibi,” federal prosecutor Kay Nehm told reporters in the south-western city of Karlsruhe.
Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas was on Friday locked in a battle of wills with the Hamas government, revoking its decisions to create a new special force and name a top militant to a key security post. The head-on collision sent tensions soaring between the moderate Palestinian Authority president and the radical Islamists, marking the first time Abbas has revoked decisions by the Hamas government since it was sworn in last month.
African Union officials travelled to Chad on Friday to study the situation eight days after a rebel attack on the capital was repulsed. The AU civilian and military officers will stay in Chad for a week to gather information for a report to the AU’s Peace and Security Council ”for the appropriate follow-up”, according to a statement released late on Thursday.
Mustafa Maluka’s gigantic portraits make us confront individuals from the outside. He spoke to Niren Tolsi.
Nadine Botha sees Angelique Kidjo, Lauryn Hill, Regina Belle and Bongo Maffin — all in one weekend.