Jackie Botten, former South African, North Eastern Transvaal and Northern Transvaal pace bowler, died on Sunday following complications after colon operations at the age of 77. A product of Pretoria High School for Boys, Botten played for Northerns during the period 1957/1958 through to the 1971/1972.
A South African Press Association (Sapa) reporter was treated for a wound in the thigh after being assaulted by striking security guards during their rampage through Cape Town’s city centre on Tuesday. The journalist, Wendell Roelf, was also hit on the head by a sjambok and in the ribs with a rock.
Talks aimed at resolving the violent strike by security guards deadlocked again on Tuesday, when employers and the guards’ negotiators could not agree on certain terms. Meanwhile, police fired rubber bullets and stun grenades to disperse striking guards who went on the rampage in central Cape Town.
The Nigerian Senate on Tuesday rejected a constitutional amendment that would have allowed President Olusegun Obasanjo to run for a third term in office in 2007. ”By this result, the Senate has said clearly and eloquently that we discontinue further proceedings on this amendment Bill,” Senate President Ken Nnamani said after the vote.
The European Union is considering helping Iran to acquire a light-water nuclear reactor, but Tehran would have to give up enriching uranium on its soil as part of guarantees that it will not make atomic weapons, diplomats told Agence France-Presse on Tuesday. Under the deal being readied by European powers, Russia would enrich uranium on Iran’s behalf.
World Cup organisers on Tuesday revealed a plan to use so-called ”human barriers” to prevent pitch invasions at next month’s finals. Last year’s Confederations Cup, also held in Germany, saw several matches interrupted by pitch invasions, and the organising committee wants to ensure there is no repeat at the World Cup.
Lawmakers in Uganda’s first multi-party Parliament in two decades took their oaths of office on Tuesday after being elected in February following the repeal of a ban on political pluralism. Members of the 308-seat legislature from five parties pledged to "uphold, preserve and defend the Constitution" as well as give "faithful service to Parliament".
Somali officials on Tuesday blamed the latest violence in their lawless capital, Mogadishu, on the United States, which they accused of meddling in domestic affairs by funding an alliance of warlords. ”The US is behind [the latest violence] through its financial and military support of warlords,” said Somali Health Minister Abdel Aziz Sheikh Yussef.
Islamist candidate Ahmed Abdalla Sambi won a landslide victory in weekend presidential elections in the coup-plagued Comoro islands, according to provisional results announced on Tuesday. The national election board said Sambi took 58,27% of the vote in Sunday’s polls, which it is hoped will bring stability to the volatile Indian Ocean archipelago.
The chief whip of the opposition Democratic Alliance is to propose to the National Assembly on Wednesday that a joint ad hoc committee of MPs should be appointed to probe ”all aspects of the handling” of the Travelgate scandal by Parliament. Three-and-a-half years have elapsed since the Travelgate scandal was uncovered.