Algeria’s roads are some of the deadliest in the world with 550 people killed in accidents there since the beginning of June. The figures show that every two hours a person is killed in a traffic accident in Algeria, with more that 4 000 killed annually and more than 57 000 injured, among them 500 who are left severely handicapped.
Road-rage murder accused Edward Kekana was granted bail of R5 000 and his case was postponed to August 31 by the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday. The call centre supervisor handed himself over to police last Monday after allegedly shooting three people dead and wounding another in an alleged road rage confrontation last month.
A centuries-old historical row over the whereabouts of the body of Christopher Columbus appeared to have been solved on Tuesday when scientists in Spain conceded that the corpse buried at Seville’s gothic Santa Maria cathedral was not that of the famous explorer.
After getting off to a good start on the back of a softer rand and stronger United States markets overnight, the JSE Securities Exchange (JSE) was off the boil in noon trade on Wednesday due to weaker European markets and US futures and the currency recovering from its worst levels seen earlier in the morning.
Annoyed by a stream of unwanted kisses, Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo warned overzealous male fans and supporters on Wednesday that to avoid embarrassment they should not pucker up in her direction. ”I do not want to be kissed by any man but my husband,” she told a meeting in Laguna province.
Bosnian forensic teams have exhumed 59 bodies including 18 children, believed to be Serb civilians, from a mass grave in the north-east of the country, a forensic expert said on Wednesday. So far about 18 000 bodies have been exhumed from more than 300 mass graves throughout the country.
Italian men, who have revelled in their reputation as hotblooded Lotharios, are no longer the lovers of legend, according to a survey of 1 200 men on the country’s favourite beaches. In the sample of men aged between 16 and 35, 87% admitted that they lacked the confidence to chat up women and were ”paralysed by the fear of being refused”.
United States President George Bush turned on Tuesday to a Republican congressman with intelligence expertise to lead the CIA through an era of change following the September 11 terror attacks. If approved by the Senate, Porter Goss (65), a former CIA operative and leader of the House intelligence committee, will be responsible for restructuring the CIA after failures of intelligence on the September 11 attacks and the Iraq war.
The informal sector features prominently in many discussions about Africa’s economic health. Some say it should be encouraged. After all, it’s a lot better than having citizens turn to crime in their effort to survive. But in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, where an an average of 100 000 vendors operates, some people have a different view.
Nigeria’s external debt stood at ,92-billion at the end of last year, Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told a news conference in Abuja on Tuesday. Nigeria owes ,47-billion dollars, 83,45% of its total debt, to the Paris Club of creditor nations, ,04-billion to multilateral institutions and ,44-billion to the London Club.