A group of disgruntled Cape fishermen spent the whole of Sunday night chained to Parliament’s gates in a protest against fishing policies. The fishermen contend that the proposed new fishing policies unveiled recently by the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, amounted to ”subtle genocide”.
Zimbabwean church representatives on Sunday denounced the week-long crackdown against street traders and shack dwellers, while police continued arrests and demolition work.
Africa’s last absolute monarch, King Mswati III, has married a young woman who has become his 11th wife, a newspaper report said on Sunday. The 37-year-old monarch secretly married Noliqwa Ntentesa last Thursday, The Times of Swaziland reported.
Oliver Stone, the Oscar-winning director of Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July as well as last year’s critically panned Alexander, suffered the additional indignity of seven hours in police cells over the weekend. He was incarcerated after being arrested on suspicion of drink driving and drug possession.
France’s voters on Sunday night decisively rejected the new European Constitution, plunging the country into political upheaval and the European Union into the deepest crisis in its 50-year history.
Lebanese voters went to the polls on Sunday at the start of the first parliamentary election in 30 years that has not been marred by civil war or heavy-handed Syrian meddling. The campaign, led by Saad Hariri (35), was celebrating victory after incomplete results showed it had swept Beirut’s 19 parliamentary seats.
President Thabo Mbeki was one of the honoured guests at a parade at which the command of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) changed hands in Pretoria on Monday. The outgoing chief of the SANDF, Siphiwe Nyanda, handed Lieutenant General Godfrey Ngwenya the symbol of office, a metre-long gilded sword.
The Pandemic Preparedness Project is readying nations worldwide for an expected global flu epidemic, according to reports on the Science and Development Network website. Researchers agree that it is question of when, not if, a global flu epidemic occurs. Many experts predict the next outbreak will result from the current bird-flu epidemics in south-east Asia.
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China lashed out at the European Union on Sunday after the 25-nation bloc took its dispute with Chinese textile imports to the World Trade Organisation, forcing an immediate curb in shipments of T-shirts and flax yarn. European and United States textile-makers say their livelihoods have been threatened by a surge in Chinese exports.