Hundreds of West Bank settlers, some armed with primitive weapons and stun grenades, on Monday prepared to confront troops sent to evict them from their homes in the heart of biblical Israel. Israeli officials expressed fears that the settlers may have even stockpiled pistols in a bid to thwart their evacuation.
Firefighting aircraft from Germany, Italy and The Netherlands headed to Portugal on Monday as the country struggled to contain its biggest wave of wildfires to hit so far this year amid rising temperatures. More than 2 700 firefighters were battling dozens of wildfires, including 27 that threatened some built-up areas.
Israeli troops on Monday began removing residents from the final Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip. Soldiers entered the Netzarim settlement five days after a combined Israeli police and army force began the forced evacuation of 21 Jewish settlements in Gaza.
Pilots at South African Airways (SAA) have postponed their attempt to go on strike after talks with management took a positive turn, the SAA Pilots’ Association (Saapa) said on Monday. ”The discussions … have resulted in important progress being made,” said Saapa chairperson Captain Piet Taljaard.
Zimbabwean officials on Monday began a week of crunch talks with a delegation from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which is weighing whether to expel the Southern African country from its ranks.
A seemingly endless cycle of extreme violence in lawless Somalia is having a ”catastrophic” effect on the war-shattered nation’s civilian population, the international charity Médécins sans Frontières (MSF) said on Monday. ”The frightening fact is that Somalia is officially not even at war,” MSF said.
The Department of Labour has called on employers to make workplaces safe after a second person died of injuries from an accident at Samancor’s Middelburg Ferrochrome furnace last week. Jaji Jan Mtsweni was one of 13 people injured when ”hot gases were released” at one of the furnaces last Wednesday morning.
A mysterious patient at a British hospital who did not speak to doctors and nurses for months but loved to play the piano has been discharged, health officials said on Monday. A spokesperson for the West Kent National Health Service said the condition of the patient dubbed ”Piano Man” had shown a ”marked improvement” and he no longer needed medical treatment.
NOT THE MOVIE OF THE WEEK: Between the moments of violence and the over-played caricatures there is the occasional laugh in Adam Sandler’s new movie The Longest Yard, writes Shaun de Waal.
A granny in Norway who scattered birdfeed in a flowerbed outside her retirement home unknowingly fed them cannabis seeds — and ended up with the wrong kind of pot in her garden, daily <i>Drangedalsposten</i> reported on Thursday. "It was my grandchildren who noticed it," she said.