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President Robert Mugabe’s claims of the triumph of his seizures of white-owned farms ring hollow at campaign rallies where people are hungry. Confronted by unenthusiastic crowds, Mugabe has admitted for the first time while campaigning that the country is confronted by widespread food shortages.
Iraq’s Parliament, meeting for only the second time since landmark elections two months ago, failed on Tuesday to pick a new speaker as Sunni, Shi’ite and Kurdish politicians bickered over Cabinet posts. Meanwhile, insurgents continued to cause mayhem as a car bomb exploded in the ethnically divided city of Kirkuk.
A dam ruptured in southern Afghanistan early on Tuesday, unleashing floods that killed at least six people and washed away hundreds of houses and shops, the provincial governor said. The United States military sent Black Hawk helicopters to help with rescue operations after the Bandi Sultan dam burst.
No written complaint has been laid against a South African police officer accused of sexually harassing another officer in Sudan, a spokesperson said on Tuesday. She was responding to media reports that a complaint has been laid against a South African police officer by a female officer, while stationed at El Fashir in Darfur.
Three nurses were hijacked with their mobile clinic between Tsolo and Maclear on Tuesday, the Eastern Cape health department said. Their assailants crashed the vehicle shortly after they hijacked it at about 4pm, health department spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said.
As the life of brain-damaged Terri Schiavo hung by a thread on Tuesday, her father feared doctors might hasten her death with morphine, while her husband requested that an autopsy be performed after she dies to prove the extent of her incapacitation. ”He’s requested this very strongly,” said Michael Schiavo’s lawyer.
The price of petrol will rise by 38 cents next week, bringing the Gauteng price to R5 a litre — its highest to date. The Department of Minerals and Energy said on Tuesday the price of all categories of fuel will rise. Departmental spokesperson Yvonne Mfolo said the announced prices are projections, which will be finalised on Friday or Monday.
Domestic employers, seasonal employers, farmers and their workers contributed R40,9-million to the Unemployment Insurance Fund during the 2003/04 financial year, according to Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana. This figure has already jumped to R68-million for the categories of employers and workers in the period from April 1 2004 to January 31 2005.
Panic and ignorance abounded on Tuesday in Angola as the war-ravaged country’s skeletal medical staff grappled with the worst ever outbreak of the Ebola-like Marburg virus, which has claimed a record toll. The mood was a sombre one in hospitals in Luanda among doctors and nurses attending to patients who may or may not be infected with the killer virus.
When a small piece of South African history was made recently in the coastal city of Cape Town, it looked as if the boys would have the last laugh. ”Girls can’t play! Girls can’t play!” several onlookers roared after every goal. But by the end of the game on Rocklands sports field the smirks were gone.