Iraq’s most wanted man, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has been wounded, his al-Qaeda front group said on its website on Tuesday in a statement that could not be verified. Zarqawi is Iraq’s most wanted man with a -million United States bounty on his head. His group has claimed a string of devastating attacks, assassinations and kidnappings.
Lifts that do not work properly, unannounced increases in the price of meals and a farcical security system are just some of the symptoms of a drop in standards at Parliament over recent years, says the Democratic Alliance. MPs have become far more accepting of a constant lowering of standards, DA deputy chief whip Mike Ellis said.
unior Spoornet employees are to receive a 4,5% salary increase, backdated to April 1, Transnet announced on Tuesday. The transport utility said the agreement follows weeks of tough negotiations with Spoornet’s recognised unions. An additional 1% has been reserved for performance-related adjustments.
Andre Agassi’s record 58th grand slam appearance ended in a shattering first-round defeat at the French Open on Tuesday, the loss surely marking the final act of the 35-year-old American’s Roland Garros adventure. Dominant at the start and shaky at the finish, Justine Henin-Hardenne won her first-round match on Tuesday.
The Colombian government said on Tuesday it will evacuate 9 000 people living near a volcano in south-west Colombia amid concerns it is about to erupt. The Galeras Volcano Observatory last month set its new warning system at level two, indicating a ”probability of an eruption within days or weeks”.
The Department of Health has approached the International Organisation for Migration as part of moves to bring nurses back to South Africa, Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Tuesday. South Africa is not the only country battling with the departure of health professionals, she said.
Authorities in Zimbabwe’s capital who have destroyed thousands of market stalls as part of a clean-up campaign are now planning to rid Harare of backyard shacks housing tens of thousands of people, a spokesperson said on Tuesday. Operation Restore Order has led to the arrest of nearly 10 000 people.
Sensitive diplomatic talks over Iran’s nuclear programme appear doomed to failure, a leading think-tank said on Tuesday on the eve of crucial negotiations between European foreign ministers and Iranian officials in Geneva. Britain, France and Germany hope to persuade Tehran to scrap its uranium-enrichment programme.
World media chiefs meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, demanded action on Tuesday from the Gambian government on the as-yet unsolved December murder of a journalist, and pilloried the country for repressing the independent press. Deyda Hydara, the co-founder and editor of the independent newspaper The Point, was killed last year.
The spiralling use of the drug ”tik” in South Africa, especially among the youth, came under the spotlight in Parliament on Tuesday, with Minister of Correctional Services Ngconde Balfour vowing to ”break the back” of those peddling the deadly substance. He also spoke about the issues of prison gangs and overcrowding.