Two incidents involving criminals masquerading as police officers have been reported from Limpopo and the North West. In Limpopo, four men robbed a bottle store while ostensibly searching for forged banknotes, while police in North West are searching for another group of ”armed and dangerous” impostors.
Japan’s oldest man has died in hospital at the age of 109 years. Minsho Ozawa, a former Buddhist priest in the central city of Yamanashi, passed away on Monday after being hospitalised with pneumonia. He leaves behind 47 children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Botswana’s national anti-retroviral programme for HIV and Aids patients is beginning to take effect, according to Botswana’s Health Ministry. A statement issued in Johannesburg on behalf of the ministry on Tuesday said this is reflected in median baseline CD4 counts increasing from 50 to 84 since the inception of the programme.
The appointment of a Ndebele to the highest clerical position in Zimbabwe is not politically driven, says the Vatican’s diplomatic envoy to the country. Robert Ndlovu’s appointment as the archbishop of Harare has drawn criticism from those who feel that the new archbishop should be a member of the Shona ethnic group.
With the life of a kidnapped Filipino on the line, the Philippines sent out ambiguous and contradictory signals on Tuesday on the hostage takers’ key demand for an early withdrawal of troops from Iraq. Foreign Undersecretary Rafael Seguis went on an Arabic television station on Monday to appeal for the life of father-of-eight Angelo de la Cruz.
Gauteng housing minister Nomvula Mokonyane on Monday urged residents of the troubled Diepsloot township north of Johannesburg not to hamper the development of houses at the settlement. She said the recent violence at the township is affecting the government’s plans to provide adequate housing on time.
A small crowd followed sheriffs through Protea Glen in Soweto on Tuesday afternoon protesting against the eviction of residents from their houses. There were sporadic scuffles and at one house the crowd threw stones, a Sapa photographer reported.
‘Don’t disturb housing process’
A burst of meteors over Finnish coastal waters early on Tuesday prompted hundreds of Finns to mistakenly report the natural phenomenon as emergency flares from distressed vessels, officials said. A caller described the phenomenon as a red fireball moving swiftly through the night sky, spewing sparks and leaving a trail of vapor.
The Commission for Employment Equity on Tuesday revealed in a report that the number of senior management positions in the country held by black people remains low despite the Employment Equity Act. Only 22% of senior management positions are held by black people, with black females in particular struggling to make it to senior-management level.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) says that the HIV/Aids pandemic has cost South Africa more than -billion (R420-billion) in the decade from 1992 to 2002. The ILO said that the loss was mainly due to deaths, absenteeism and lower productivity brought about by the ravaging disease.