Minister of Correctional Services Ngconde Balfour has ordered steps be taken to minimise the risk of a repeat of Monday’s fatal cell blaze at Pollsmoor prison in Cape Town. He visited the prison on Tuesday morning to inspect the cells where six awaiting-trial inmates set fire to mattresses and bedding on Monday afternoon.
Kenyan police used tear gas violently to disperse at least 200 Maasai tribesmen who were demonstrating in the capital, Nairobi, to demand their land back, an AFP journalist reported. ”We have used force to put off the demonstration because it was illegal,” Nairobi police chief Julius Ndegwa said as riot police charged on the Maasai.
”A highly successful year” was how South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni described 2003/04 in his annual economic report in Pretoria on Tuesday. ”Of particular significance was the attainment of the inflation target which allowed for a reduction in nominal money market interest rates,” he said.
Japan issued an order on Tuesday to deport former world chess champion Bobby Fischer, announced the Justice Ministry. Japanan’s Minister of Justice Daizo Nozawa turned down an appeal against a deportation order and claim for political refugee status and told Fischer and his lawyers that he will be deported on Tuesday.
Saturday August 28 has been declared Software Freedom Day and the Go Open Source campaign and Linux user groups are hosting "install-fests" across South Africa. Members of the public will be able to take their computers to one of these national install-fests to have open-source software installed.
Officials in Lilongwe, Malawi, are working hard to promote safe alternatives to the agricultural pesticide methyl bromide, which they hope to phase out by the end of the year. If they succeed, Malawi will beat South Africa to be the first country in the region to phase out all non-essential use of the chemical.
A bird-flu virus closely related to the strain that has infected South African ostriches has been found in pigs on several farms in China, according to an announcement from a Chinese scientist. The virulent H5N1 strain is highly infectious in poultry and can spread from birds to humans.
A senior Sudanese official has rejected any immediate wider role for African Union troops in its troubled Darfur region, saying security in the western region was the responsibility of Sudanese forces. Sudan’s Agriculture Minister Majzoub al-Khalifa Ahmad on Monday dismissed a proposal by the African Union to send nearly 2 000 peacekeepers to the area.
A people without hope in Sudan
Union leaders representing striking miners at three of Botswana’s diamond mines will face charges of contempt of court on Tuesday afternoon. ”Branch leaders were served with notices during the night at their homes in Jwaneng, Orapa and Letlhakane,” said Botswana Mining Workers’ Union general secretary Donald Lobotse.