Germany’s two main parties cleared the way on Wednesday for a grand left-right coalition to break the country’s political deadlock and said they would meet within a day to thrash out who would lead it. Officials in Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats said a leadership summit would be held on Thursday.
Spain’s announcement that it plans to build a third fence to separate its enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla from Morocco has drawn loud criticism while giving rise to many questions. The most frequently asked question is whether the measures designed to dissuade desperately poor people from sub-Saharan Africa from attempting to enter Europe will be effective.
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United States government regulators are trying to shut down a company they say secretly downloaded spyware on to the computers of unwitting internet users, rendering them helpless to a flood of pop-up ads, computer crashes and other annoyances. Spyware is a growing problem on the internet.
There were grave fears on Wednesday about the fate of 36 police cadets still missing after a landslide killed 50 of their colleagues, as masses of people were evacuated from the worst floods in a decade swamping north China. More than 7Â 000 soldiers, police and local residents were carrying out a search-and-rescue operation.
A bomb exploded at the entrance of a Shi’ite Muslim mosque south of Baghdad on Wednesday as worshippers gathered for prayers ahead of the breaking of the fast on the first day of Ramadan, killing at least 13 people and wounding 40, police and hospital officials said.
Hurricane Stan knocked down trees, ripped roofs off homes and washed out bridges in south-eastern Mexico, but it was the storms it helped spawn that were far more destructive, killing at least 82 people in Central America. The hurricane had weakened to a depression by Wednesday.
A witness in the sex-crimes trial of two Pretoria advocates was accused in the city’s high court on Wednesday of helping to ”build” a case against the pair. Social worker Marlene Malan was unable to explain why a claim that Cezanne Visser had asked an 11-year-old girl to touch her then-partner Dirk Prinsloo’s private parts came to light months after the initial complaint.
A man wearing a black top was captured on camera withdrawing money from missing Constable Frances Rasuge’s bank account days after she disappeared, the Mmabatho Circuit Court heard on Wednesday. In other testimony on Wednesday, Rasuge’s mother said accused William Nkuna had threatened to kill Rasuge and himself.
Cool and conditions moving over the northern parts of the country brought some relief on Wednesday for firefighters still battling veld fires in Mpumalanga. Earlier in the day, a fire that raged through the North West veld overnight was brought under control near the Vredefort Dome. However, the fire risk remains high in the northern parts of the country.