Shock and bewilderment were etched on the faces of Londoners on Thursday as blasts struck the British capital’s transit system for the second time in as many weeks. British Prime Minister Tony Blair told a press conference the blasts were ”serious” and intended to scare people.
Zimbabwe’s central bank on Thursday massively devalued the local currency in a bid to increase inflows of scarce foreign currency as the country battles to find hard cash to pay for fuel, food and electricity. The Zimbabwe dollar was devalued by 40% from about Z 500 to Z 500 to the United States dollar.
The Israeli government is considering moving up its mid-August withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, senior government officials said on Thursday, after a three-day mass protest against the pull-out tied up tens of thousands of security forces. The evacuation originally was to have begun in mid-July.
Explosions struck London’s transport system on Thursday, shutting down three underground train stations and blowing out the windows of a double-decker bus, authorities said, two weeks after four deadly suicide bombings. Metropolitan police Commissioner Ian Blair said there were four attempted explosions.
Police raided church halls in Zimbabwe’s second city of Bulawayo on Wednesday, rounding up people who had been sheltering there since their homes were destroyed in a so-called urban renewal drive, a human rights lawyer said on Thursday.
Condoms are inventions by mzungus (whites) and should therefore be banned, a Kenyan MP said on Thursday. Ramadhan Kajembe, MP for the Changamwe district, said in Parliament that not only are condoms ”mzungu things” but they are also painful to put on.
Thousands of South African Airways (SAA) employees will participate in a nationwide strike starting on Friday, the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) said on Thursday. A Satawu spokesperson said the union will pursue every avenue and make every effort to engage with SAA.
President Thabo Mbeki’s spokesperson Bheki Khumalo has resigned, a statement issued by the Presidency confirmed on Thursday afternoon. Khumalo has served as the president’s spokesperson for five years. He will step down at the end of July to take up a senior executive post in the private sector.
Three London subway stations were evacuated on Thursday following a number of unspecified ”incidents”, police said, as witnesses reported panic and screaming in the underground system. Scotland Yard said emergency services responded to an ”incident” on a bus in east London.
The South African government needs to take a ”tough love” approach to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s outrageous and unprecedented appeal for a R6,5-billion loan, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said on Thursday.