Fifteen people — six rebel Rwandan Hutu militiamen, a government soldier and eight civilians — have been killed in fighting in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), military sources said on Tuesday. The attacks in the restive Nord-Kivu province were led by Rwandan Hutu rebels accompanied by local Mai Mai militiamen.
Nepal’s path back to democracy turned rocky on Tuesday as political divisions broke into the open and protesters demanded that legislators move faster to ensure the king can never grab power again. New Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala announced the core of a new, seven-member Cabinet.
Italy’s Premier Silvio Berlusconi resigned on Tuesday, paving the way for a centre-left government led by Romano Prodi after weeks of refusing to acknowledge the outcome of last month’s elections. President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi asked Berlusconi to remain temporarily as caretaker prime minister.
The economic vision of the formerly ruling Inkatha Freedom Party in the KwaZulu homeland is being played out even today in KwaZulu-Natal, former premier Lionel Mtshali said on Tuesday. He also said the institutions set up in the former non-independent homeland are still providing key financial and banking services to the poor.
The nine provinces spent on average 98% or R214,8-billion of their adjusted budgets of R219,2-billion in 2005/06, the National Treasury said on Tuesday. This was a significant spending increase year-on-year of 13,5% or R25,5-billion over the audited R189,2-billion spent in 2004/05.
The Department of Home Affairs has slammed the statements of a former senior official who described the department as suffering from "a national crisis" over the issuing of passports. It has also rejected calls made for the resignation of Minister of Home Affairs Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and her deputy.
Iran has managed to enrich uranium up to 4,8% purity, the head of the country’s Atomic Energy Organization said on Tuesday, as envoys of the main world powers met in Paris to discuss how to halt the sensitive nuclear fuel work. Iran had already announced last month that it had enriched uranium to 3,6% purity, sufficient to produce reactor fuel.
The ”arrogance” displayed by security-industry employers in their stalemate with striking workers is a cause of concern, Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana said on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the South African Trade and Allied Workers’ Union said it will continue striking until its demands are met.
President Idriss Déby is expected to win re-election in polls on Wednesday. But it may not seem like much of a victory. Many of the fellow tribesman who once supported him have taken up arms with the aim of toppling him, and most opposition political parties are boycotting Wednesday’s election, claiming that it is already rigged.
Africa should get to the point where discussions about peace and security on the continent are no longer needed, the President of the Pan African Parliament, Gertrude Mongella, said on Tuesday. Briefing the media after the start of the fifth sitting of the Parliament in Midrand, north of Johannesburg, Mongella said while some conflicts were resolved new ones kept coming onto the agenda.