A Côte d’Ivoire rebel group said on Sunday they had arrested a New Zealand man allegedly hired to kill its leaders, as well as 35 militiamen who were planning an offensive against the group. The alleged mercenary, holder of a New Zealand passport with the name Brian Hamish Sands, was arrested on Friday after arriving in Bouake.
Police were on Monday probing stone-throwing incidents on the R59 road near Meyerton on the Vaal Rand, spokesperson Superintendent Nthabiseng Mazibuko said. She said a docket of malicious damage to property had been opened at Johannesburg’s Kliprivier police station.
Who are we? Where are we coming from? Where are we going? Gregory Vuyani Maqoma’s work examines these questions that resonate through the best of the world’s traditions of expression through the arts, but in his own particular way. What he comes up with, on a wide stage filled with many strongly defined characters, goes beyond the bounds of ”contemporary dance”.
Thousands of Togolese lined the streets of the capital Lome on Sunday to pay their last respects as a state funeral was held for the West African country’s long-serving ruler Gnassingbe Eyadema. Eyadema, who seized the reins of Togo in a coup in 1967 and had been Africa’s longest-serving ruler, died while flying to France for medical treatment.
The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in Zimbabwe said on Sunday it was increasingly perplexed by claims by the South African government that the elections in Zimbabwe will be free and fair. MDC secretary general Welshman Ncube said the MDC did not understand the SA government’s ”ignorance” about the situation in Zimbabwe.
Hunger is stalking the rural folk in Chimanimani, about 450km east of Harare, and the political fallout could be significant. Traditional chiefs are normally the rearguard of President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF. But this time round, it appears that some have thrown their weight behind Heather Bennet, wife of jailed Movement for Democratic Change MP Roy Bennet. Failure to deal with hunger could be Mugabe’s downfall.
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday disappointed legions of political junkies who had been salivating at the prospect of an all-woman race for the White House in 2008 between the secretary of state and Hillary Clinton, by insisting that she would not seek the presidency.
A new Iraqi government may not be in place by the time the new Parliament meets on Wednesday because the two main political blocs — the Shia and the Kurds — cannot agree on the programme and make-up of the country’s first elected national administration in decades.
”Someone has snitched. The security men are coming. Shut the door, close the curtains and stay quiet.” Moments later, footsteps outside. A rap on the door. A mother squeezes her child tightly to her breast to muffle his cries. An older woman holds back sobs, her eyes red with tears.
Botswana has been showered with praise and been repeatedly dubbed the "African miracle". We, in contrast, suggest that the country’s democracy is elitist, power is centralised in the Presidency and there is growing autocracy in Botswana. The imminent handover of power by the current President, Festus Mogae, to the Vice-President, Ian Khama, is increasingly raising concern within Botswana itself.