President Mwai Kibaki has declared a national disaster in drought-stricken parts of Kenya, calling for nearly -million in emergency aid from abroad to feed about 3,3-million Kenyans facing food shortages. The country will need an estimated 156Â 000 tons of food aid in the next six months, Kibaki said on Tuesday.
United States President George Bush on Wednesday renewed his election-year appeal for a controversial constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage after that effort suffered a Senate defeat. ”I am deeply disappointed that the [amendment] was temporarily blocked in the Senate,” he said in a statement.
Experts called on Thursday for urgent work on HIV-killing gels that could help protect women who can’t rely on condoms, while democracy icon Nelson Mandela told the world not to ignore tuberculosis (TB) in its battle against Aids. TB is a common diseases that attacks Aids patients after their immune systems have been destroyed.
Gunmen assassinated a Iraqi provincial governor on Wednesday, hours after a suicide attacker detonated a massive car bomb that killed at least 10 and wounded 40 in the worst attack in Baghdad since the United States handed over power to the Iraqi interim government on June 28.
One of the Boeremag treason trial accused told the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday he is not the ”monster” he is made out to be. ”At the start of the trial we were portrayed as these vicious barbarians who had no respect for human lives and drove around planting bombs everywhere,” testified Gerhardus ”Vis” Visagie.
The South African government will send a delegation to Equatorial Guinea to ensure that the trial of eight South Africans arrested in that country — for allegedly plotting to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Nguema — will be conducted in a fair manner. The Minister of Foreign Affairs announced this in Pretoria on Wednesday.
The dragging stalemate in the border dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea has led the United Nations to voice its concern saying that the impasse poses a security threat to the Horn of Africa. More than 100Â 000 lives were lost before fighting ended almost four years ago.
Inspectors are probing a North West farmer on child labour allegations after a 13-year-old boy was injured while allegedly working on his farm, the Department of Labour said on Wednesday. Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana said: ”Child labour is unacceptable — it destroys childhood.”
Affirmative-action targets for companies must also be set on lower job levels that are currently almost 100% black, the trade union Solidarity said on Wednesday. The Employment Equity Commission’s annual report shows that the number of white males on the lower levels declined by 64% to only 1,4%, said the general secretary of Solidarity.
A Companies Amendment Bill, which will be piloted through Parliament by Minister of Trade and Industry Mandisi Mpahlwa, has been tabled in Parliament. The Bill deals with such matters as the circumstances under which "persons" are disqualified from being directors of companies.