The siege of the Imam Ali shrine in the holy city of Najaf was on Wednesday approaching its end, with United States forces reportedly only 20m away and most of the rebel Mehdi Army fighters said to have either fled or been killed. Heavy fighting was ongoing on the streets of Najaf’s Old City but, according to The Guardian correspondent Luke Harding, who is nearby, the three-week siege was entering its final hours.
‘Prepare to march on Najaf’
The late Paul Meintjes, whose family was told by a ”prophet” that he would rise from the dead, has finally been laid to rest at his hometown, Hertzogville. Meintjes was buried in a local cemetery on Wednesday during a small ceremony attended by his sister, Hettie Voster, and her family. Meintjes’ widow, Anna, was not present.
A former Anglican bishop who seduced a schoolgirl 50 years ago on Wednesday became the first churchman in Australia ever to be defrocked. Donald Shearman (77) had sex with the girl regularly when he was a boarding house master and she a boarder in his care between 1954 and 1956.
The mother of former South African and now Australian rugby player Clyde Rathbone was recovering from injuries sustained during a burglary at her home on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast on Wednesday morning. This comes less than a week after a newspaper article quoted her son as saying that since he had moved to Australia, he had a ”total lack of stress” and never worried about the safety of his fiancée.
British scientists have found a seemingly unlikely way to soothe anxious sheep, a report said on Wednesday — by showing them photographs of other sheep. Much as humans find a picture of loved ones a reassuring item to carry in their wallet, the sight of a friendly face appears to lower stress levels in sheep.
Public service unions met privately in Cape Town on Wednesday to discuss their response to an invitation from the government for informal talks after a deadlock in pay negotiations. The government’s chief negotiator, Kenny Govender, approached the eight unions last Wednesday with a request for an informal meeting to find a solution to the deadlock.
A spokesperson for radical Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called on Wednesday on Muslims worldwide to intervene urgently to save the holy Iraqi city of Najaf and warned United States soldiers against entering the sacred Imam Ali Shrine, Al-Arabiya television reported.
The majority of British people remember Mark Thatcher as one of the only people who ever made his mother, former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, show any personal feelings in public. But now he has been arrested in South Africa over his alleged involvement in a coup plot in Equatorial Guinea.
The South African Human Rights Commission will hold an inquiry into alleged human rights violations against the Khomani San community of the Kalahari, the commission announced on Wednesday. The inquiry will be held in the community hall of Andriesvale, in the Askham area of the Northern Cape, from October 26 to 29 with submissions from individuals, organisations and interested parties invited.