A ”dangerous” Hurricane Frances gathered strength on Tuesday, putting the Bahamas on alert and prompting some Florida residents to stock up on basic goods. A hurricane watch was in effect for the south-eastern Bahamas and for the Turks and Caicos islands as Frances moved closer, packing sustained winds of about 215kph.
Local councillors in the Western Cape claim they are victims of ”widescale intimidation” as the opportunity for them to cross the floor without losing their seats approaches. A Democratic Alliance councillor ”has 24-hour protection following [unspecified] threats. He is not sleeping at his own place.”
No words can fully describe the contribution women have made to ensure freedom in South Africa, Deputy President Jacob Zuma said on Tuesday. In a speech to commemorate the 1956 women’s march, he paid special tribute to those women involved in one way or another in the struggle against apartheid.
In a restructuring of senior management after poor results, two executives at Transnet have announced their departure from the parastatal, the company said on Tuesday. Transnet’s entire board — except for newly appointed chief executive Maria Ramos — resigned last week.
A 17-year-old boy, hospitalised after police used rubber bullets to disperse a protesting crowd on the N3 near Harrismith on Monday, died in hospital on Tuesday. The teenager died from internal bleeding, a Free State police spokesperson said.
Twenty children shot in Harrismith
At least 15 people were killed and more than 80 wounded in the twin suicide bombings of two buses in the southern Israeli town of Beersheva on Tuesday.
The attack came hours after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon unveiled an accelerated timetable for his plan to pull settlers and troops out of the Gaza Strip.
While schools are under pressure to distribute condoms at schools, not one of the 12 African countries represented at a high-level meeting in Durban is doing so and most education officials felt this would be inappropriate. A number felt that schools should nonetheless help sexually active secondary-school students to get access to condoms.
Teachers will hold marches around the country on Thursday to protest against government’s offer of a 5,5% salary increase, the SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) said. At a press conference in Johannesburg on Tuesday, Sadtu secretary general Thulas Nxesi said the union was confused by the government’s offer made at the bargaining chamber on Monday.
A top British Foreign Office official will visit North Korea in September, the first British minister to go to the secretive communist nation, the Foreign Office said on Tuesday. Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell said he would meet with a North Korean counterpart, Paek Nam Sun, and other senior figures, to discuss issues including North Korea’s nuclear programme and human rights.
Agriculture and defence ministers from 16 African countries met on Tuesday to marshal their forces for an assault on swarms of locusts whose incursions in West Africa are the worst in more than a decade and could produce widespread food shortages. Tuesday’s session was the latest in a series of meetings to battle the locusts.