At least 22 people were shot and killed on Wednesday as Ethiopian security forces clashed with stone-throwing protesters accusing the ruling party of fraud in last month’s elections. Hospitals in the capital, Addis Ababa, were filled with people injured in the demonstrations, while crowds of relatives wept outside.
Electronic drawings that give comprehensive details of how to build and test equipment essential for making nuclear bombs have vanished and could be put up for sale on the international black market, according to United Nations investigators.
This week South Africa was caught in the maelstrom of its gravest post-apartheid political crisis. It is a defining moment — what we do now will determine what kind of country future generations of South Africans inhabit. As it grappled with what to do about Deputy President Jacob Zuma, the African National Congress was more publicly split than on any other issue it has faced in government.
Three weeks after Zimbabwe launched an unpopular urban clean-up drive that has drawn widespread criticism and made thousands homeless and destitute in the height of winter, authorities on Wednesday widened the crackdown to previously white-owned farms now in the hands of blacks.
United States President George Bush is meeting with the leaders of several African nations later this month to celebrate elections held last year in each and hold them up as models of democratic progress on the troubled continent. The presidents of Botswana, Ghana, Mozambique, Namibia and Niger are meeting Bush.
Claims by the Congress of South African Trade Unions that the strike by Metrorail workers is predominantly white were rejected by the Federation of Unions of South Africa on Wednesday. Meanwhile, negotiations between unions and Metrorail management were under way in Johannesburg.
Hotels in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, have given members of Somalia’s transitional government up to Wednesday to vacate the rooms they have occupied for almost three years, a Somalian MP said on Wednesday. Another member of the Nairobi-based transitional federal Parliament said the notice was not a surprise.
A website that specialises in storm forecasts warned on Wednesday that the Atlantic may face a major hurricane season this year. Tropical Storm Risk predicted that, on the basis of current and projected climate data, the hurricane season would be 160% above average in terms of numbers.
An Australian woman has been arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle 51 tropical fish into Australia concealed under her skirt, customs officials said on Monday. The 43-year-old woman drew the attention of customs officers intrigued by "flipping" noises coming from under her skirt, a customs spokesperson said.
North Korea on Wednesday ruled out new talks on its nuclear ambitions unless Washington meets unspecified conditions, in a setback to efforts to resolve the stand-off. A fourth round of the stalled six-nation talks will take place only when the United States agrees to its demands, the Stalinist state said.