A senior Japanese power-company official defended on Wednesday the speed with which the public was notified about damage at a quake-hit nuclear plant that resulted in a radioactive water leak. The Tokyo Electric Power Company has come under fire for being slow to inform the public about damage at the plant.
A plan to reduce the effects of commercial fishing fleets within Southern Africa’s so-called Benguela-current large marine ecosystem was released in Cape Town on Wednesday. Experts have hailed it as a clear and practical way of implementing an ”ecosystem approach to fisheries” policy in the region.
The South African Revenue Service (Sars) has warned taxpayers against applying for deductions for private household security as a form of protesting against crime. Honest, non-suspecting taxpayers could, as a result, end up committing a crime themselves, Sars warned in a statement on Wednesday.
The violence that has marred recent service-delivery protests cannot be justified, the South African Human Rights Commission said on Wednesday. While the commission recognises the right of any person to assemble, to demonstrate, to picket and to present petitions, ”inherent in this right is the respect for the rule of law”, the commission said in a statement.
The leaders of Somalia’s national reconciliation conference on Wednesday opened up the talks to Islamists, members of a rival peace meeting in Asmara and even insurgents targeting the conference venue in Mogadishu. By allowing the dissident groups in, conference organisers appeared to be trying to give the meeting wider inclusiveness urged by international donors.
Norwegian researchers are calling for bold, non-hairy humans to bare their arms and be stung by jellyfish — in the name of science. Testing a new sunscreen, aimed at protecting against jellyfish stings, the University of Oslo said it wants volunteers to be burned by jellyfish tentacles on both arms.
Hospital group Netcare has denied allegations that private hospitals are presenting inflated invoices to medical-aid schemes. It was responding to a report in the Star newspaper that alleged that private hospitals inflate device and materials invoices when presenting them to medical-aid schemes.
Chilling details on how Pretoria teenager Samantha Uys possibly met her death emerged on Wednesday in the trial of her two alleged killers. Pretoria High Court Judge Tholi Vilakazi ruled that a pointing-out statement by Ricky Godfrey (19) of Meyerspark — one of the accused — was admissible as evidence against him.
The decision by the Cabinet to approve the setting up of structures to ensure that government departments’ documents are available in all the official languages was welcomed by several organisations on Wednesday. ”The decision … is a first, yet far-reaching, intervention to ensure a commitment to multilingualism,” the Afrikanerbond said.
The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) Youth Brigade hopes to pull the country’s youth out of its voting slumber through a ”Miss IFP” beauty pageant, launched on Wednesday. The contest is a bid to get young and first-time voters interested in the electoral process ahead of the 2009 elections.