At least 43 people were killed when a critically overloaded Nigerian truck carrying passengers and building materials plunged off the road and flipped over, rescue officials said on Wednesday. ”It was overloaded and speeding when it swerved off the road,” said Oheri Osondu, a senior officer of the Federal Road Safety Commission.
Germany has nominated fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm to join the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s Memory of the World list to preserve the gothic stories adored by generations of children, officials said on Wednesday. Memory of the World is an initiative to defend the world’s cultural and documentary heritage.
Serial child rapist Joao de Canha can get medication in jail to keep his ”extraordinary sex drive” under control, counsel for his defence told the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday. De Canha (36), a Portuguese citizen, was found guilty by Judge Hekkie Daniels earlier this week on 29 charges, including 10 of rape.
There is a growing danger that Aids is dropping off the South African media screen, an analysis by Media Tenor, the Institute for Media Analysis in Pretoria, showed. In terms of coverage of major topics, Aids receives only 0,1% more airtime or column inches than environmental issues, showing that South African media have lost their focus on this issue.
Engen Petroleum, South Africa’s largest fuel retailer, has launched its Dynamic Unleaded fuel in South Africa, the latest in its range of fuels marketed under the Dynamic product line, the company announced on Wednesday. From Wednesday, Dynamic Unleaded will be available nationwide at approximately 900 Engen sites.
Sanlam, one of South Africa’s largest insurance and financial services groups, and the Professional Provident Society Insurance Company (PPS) have formally extended the agreement governing their relationship, with PPS reaffirming Sanlam as its preferred provider in its endeavour to broaden its range of products and services.
Fortified by his United Nations victory, United States President George Bush called on Wednesday for Nato allies to assume a greater role in US-led efforts to stabilise Iraq and bring democracy there. But the president acknowledged that alliance members might not send troops.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=67625">Bush ignored lawyers over tactics</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=67651">Saboteurs blow up oil pipeline</a>
The Zimbabwean government announced on Tuesday that it intends to nationalise all farmland, a step which its critics fear will hasten the collapse of agriculture when millions of people depend on food aid. The land reform and resettlement minister, John Nkomo, told The Herald newspaper: ”All land shall be state land and there will be no such thing called private land.”
Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon on Wednesday called for immediate action on Zimbabwe following the latest land grab moves by President Robert Mugabe’s regime. ”It is absolutely crucial that South Africa ends the silence of silent diplomacy. There is an urgent need for both words and action on Zimbabwe’s latest economic anarchy,” he said.
The Bush administration routinely bypassed or overruled Pentagon experts on international law and the Geneva convention to construct a sweeping legal justification for harsh tactics in the war on terror, The Guardian has learnt. The revelation follows reports in the United States press this week of a Pentagon memo that argued that Bush was not bound by laws against torture.