Firefighting teams are battling to extinguish 15 forest and veld fires that continue to burn out of control in Mpumalanga, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal, Working on Fire (WF) said on Monday. WF spokesperson Val Charlton said about 26 WF firefighting teams are battling the blazes across the northern parts of the country.
The state was in the dock on Monday for not seeking a prison sentence for convicted fraudster Tony Yengeni and other corrupt public officials. Pointing out that public corruption has become rife, two Pretoria High Court judges said it might be time to start imposing deterrent sentences.
Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola, a strong opponent of the acceptance of homosexuality within the worldwide Anglican Church, has chosen a different battle at home — the fight against corruption and what he calls the ”dirty game” of politics. Akinola said the government’s fight against ”the evil of corruption” is not going nearly far enough.
United States President George Bush nominated White House counsel and long-time loyalist Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court on Monday, a move that may shape legal battles on divisive issues such as abortion for decades. If confirmed by the US Senate, she would replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) claimed to have shut down the clothing industry in the Western Cape on Monday during a one-day strike in the province and in the Eastern Cape. But a Western Cape clothing-industry spokesperson described the shutdown claim as ”a joke”.
Members of Sudan’s government and the two rebel movements fighting in the war-torn Darfur region began substantive peace talks on Monday as the African Union called for an end to a recent upsurge in violence. ”We cannot understand the repeated acts of banditry in Darfur,” AU conference chairperson Salim Ahmed Salim said.
A museum in Portugal will later this year unveil a metal reproduction of Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho’s iconic grey coat that he wore on the touchlines last season, public television RTP reported. The replica will go on display at Lisbon’s Fashion and Clothing Museum as part of a temporary exhibit.
Fifty-nine trainee police officers were missing on Monday after mountain torrents swelled by Typhoon Longwang swept away two buildings at their academy in south-east China, state media reported. At least three people were killed as Typhoon Longwang brought heavy rain, flooding and strong winds to south-eastern China.
Only a few thousand people turned up to march through central Cape Town on Monday as the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) called a one-day strike in protest against job losses. About 27 000 turned up for a similar march in June this year, but police said Monday’s total was only about 5 000.
The credibility of Tony Yengeni’s claim that former prosecutions head Bulelani Ngcuka promised him a R5 000 fine in exchange for pleading guilty to fraud was questioned in the Pretoria High Court on Monday. Had such an agreement existed, one would have expected Yengeni to protest immediately at his prison sentence, one of the judges stated.