An illegal strike in the world’s largest diamond producer, Botswana, entered a second week on Monday with the union saying that miners who have opted to stay on the job are overworked, resulting in two deaths. Thousands of workers in four mines run by Debswana went on strike a week ago.
Frederick Forsyth wrote it up as The Dogs of War and set it in Malabo: a rag-tag band of mercenaries, recruited by a British elite, tries to seize control of a mineral-rich, African backwater. Now the basic plot is playing out again as a trial unfolds for a group accused of a failed plot to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea.
Detailing torture and coercion, accused South African mercenaries on Monday repudiated purported confessions taken from them in an alleged coup conspiracy that spanned from Britain to South Africa. "I can show marks," South African Jose Cardoso said, gesturing with his chained hands during his dramatic testimony.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=121356">Thatcher’s family slip out of Cape Town</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=121326">Scorpions charge ‘mercenaries’ in SA</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=121328">Forsyth’s fiction close to the facts</a>
South African President Thabo Mbeki visited the Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday amid a spiraling political crisis threatening a peace process largely brokered by South Africa to end the DRC’s five-year war. DRC President Joseph Kabila gave an airport welcome to Mbeki, who has played a key role in helping to end the 1998-2003 conflict and launch a national-unity government.
Laura Branigan, a Grammy-nominated pop singer best known for her 1982 platinum hit Gloria, has died. She was 47. Branigan died of a brain aneurysm on Thursday in her sleep at her home in East Quogue. Branigan released seven albums after her debut, including Solitaire and Self Control.
The multinational group Unilever on Monday launched its corporate brand with a new logo and mission at a function at Johannesburg’s Constitution Hill attended by business leaders and dignitaries, including Deputy President Jacob Zuma. Unilever brands include Sunlight, Omo, Dove, Axe, Rama, Joko, Knorr and Mrs Balls.
The world could face a humanitarian failure if up to half a million refugees return to southern Sudan in the event of a final peace deal between rebels and government forces before the end of the year, the United Nations warned on Monday. Peace talks in Kenya are aimed at ending 21 years of devastating conflict in Sudan.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=121313">Hunger stalks Darfur’s refugees</a>
Powerful Typhoon Chaba, packing winds of up to 144kph, pounded Japan’s main southern island of Kyushu on Monday, killing at least two people and injuring more than 30. In Miyazaki prefecture, the typhoon killed an 82-year-old man and a 71-year-old man in different cities and slightly injured four people.
Uncluttered by tenses, prepositions and grammatical quirks, Indonesia’s national tongue was once a gift to travellers who quickly grasped the basics. Now a bizarre passion for acronyms is threatening to engulf the language, leaving visitors and even locals lost in translation as more phrases are mangled into this ugly alphabet soup.
Twenty children were shot when police tried to disperse a group of protesters on the N3 highway outside Harrismith on Monday, Free State police said. Captain Paul Kubheka said about 4 500 children descended on the N3 highway on Monday morning to highlight concerns about service delivery in the area.