Rival militiamen renewed fighting on Wednesday on the northern edge of Somalia’s lawless capital, witnesses and medical sources said. More than 140 people — mostly non-combatants caught in the crossfire — were killed in eight days of fighting in Mogadishu earlier this month between Islamic militias and a rival alliance of secular warlords.
The increase in South Africa’s consumer price index excluding mortgage rate changes (CPIX) for metro and other areas, which is used by the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) for its inflation target, was up 3,7% year-on-year in April after a 3,8% increase in March, Statistics South Africa said on Wednesday.
An al-Qaeda-linked umbrella group in Iraq on Wednesday denied any link to a suspect, whose alleged confessions were aired on Jordanian television, in an internet statement posted on an Islamist website. "We don’t even know the individual shown on Jordanian television," the Mujahedin Consultative Council said.
South Africa’s national air carrier South African Airlines (SAA) has signed a consent order with the competition commission to pay R55-million in administrative penalties for fixing prices and fuel-levy charges on flight tickets. The airline was also penalised for abusing its dominant position in the domestic market.
Jurors deliberated for a fifth day on Wednesday in the fraud trial of former Enron chief executives Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay, after a separate trial of Lay before a judge on banking charges concluded. The eight women and four men, who have already debated for about 24 hours over four days, have given no indication of their progress.
A huge fire engulfed the cargo section of Istanbul’s international Atatürk airport on Wednesday. Black smoke billowed high into the air, television footage showed. The fire caused panic at the airport, and authorities were trying to evacuate hundreds of people from nearby terminals.
Mamelodi police and the principal at Gatang Secondary School addressed pupils on Wednesday after violence erupted in the area following a schoolgirl’s rape on Monday. ”Mamelodi police leadership and the principal are talking to pupils about what happened yesterday [Tuesday],” said police spokesperson Constable Brenda Kgafela.
Serbia and Montenegro began on Wednesday the difficult task of dismantling their union, with opposition parties yet to accept referendum results showing Montenegrins had voted for independence. Seeking a speedy split, Serbia-Montenegro President Svetozar Marovic, a Montenegrin, has already announced plans to resign on Thursday.
The World Bank believes Zimbabwe has the capacity to reclaim its position as the breadbasket of Southern Africa, Harare’s The Herald newspaper reported on Wednesday. For this to happen the country would have to revitalise its road, railway and water infrastructure, the paper’s website quoted World Bank country manager Sudhir Chitale as saying.
The Wallabies will play a more forward-orientated game under new coach John Connolly, team vice-captain Nathan Sharpe said on Wednesday. Connolly has shown his intentions to restore order at the set pieces by appointing noted ”scrum doctor” Alec Evans as an assistant to forwards coach Michael Foley.