A Pietermaritzburg family has been forced to vacate its home in Azalea township after it was invaded by snakes, the Witness reported on Wednesday. The newspaper’s website quoted Bongekile Ndlela (42), a mother of five, as saying she first discovered the reptiles on Sunday inside her bedroom. Since then she has killed five of them with the help of a neighbour.
Though manufacturers are still looking on the bright side, overall business confidence in South Africa is at its lowest in two years, according to the latest Rand Merchant Bank/Bureau for Economic Research index. The index, released on Wednesday, showed a decline from 83 points late last year to 81 in the first quarter of 2007.
The president of Ethiopia’s remote Afar region on Wednesday denied Eritrean accusations that local separatist rebels were responsible for abducting a British embassy group there for almost a fortnight. ”There are no rebel movements operating in the Afar region. Our soldiers monitor the area daily,” Ismail Ali Sero told Agence France-Presse by telephone.
South Africa has become one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be a police officer, the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) said on Wednesday. Party spokesperson Velaphi Ndlovu said the emotional damage the job causes was shown in the increased number of police-officer suicides in the second half of last year, he said in a statement.
The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP expressed concern on Wednesday about reports that international terrorists might be in South Africa. ”The IFP is alarmed at reports that suggest we might be harbouring international terror suspects, with links to Afghanistan, Iraq and al-Qaeda, without our knowledge,” the IFP’s John Bhengu said.
Iran’s president voiced defiance on Wednesday as world powers prepared to put the finishing touches to new sanctions against the Islamic Republic, saying his country would not surrender. His tough language was echoed by another senior official, who said mastering the nuclear fuel cycle was a ”red line” from which Iran would never retreat.
North Korea’s top nuclear negotiator has snubbed the chief United Nations nuclear inspector by claiming he was too busy to meet him during the International Atomic Energy Agency’s first trip to Pyongyang since being thrown out of the country four years ago.
United States President George Bush wrapped up a tour of Latin America on Wednesday with little to show for his six-day swing through the region. Bush was due to head home with no substantive deals or immediate evidence that the public relations offensive had salvaged Washington’s reputation in the five countries he visited.
South African life insurer Metropolitan Holdings increased annual headline earnings per share by 28% and said on Wednesday the outlook for its target markets remained positive. Shares in Metropolitan outperformed rivals as South Africa’s bourse fell 3% in a fresh sell-off sparked by emerging market worries.
Late on Monday Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama went head to head for a key demographic group: Jewish voters. Supporters from the Clinton and Obama camps flooded the hallways of the Washington Convention Centre, distributing fliers and shouting through loudhailers in their bid to draw people in.