President Robert Mugabe has saluted the security forces in Zimbabwe for supporting his government’s controversial campaign to slash prices of all goods and services in the country, reports said on Monday. The 83-year-old leader was speaking on Sunday as he gave out prizes after the President’s Medal shooting competition in the capital, Harare.
The Pakistan Cricket Board confirmed former Australian fast bowler Geoff Lawson as their new cricket coach on Monday. Board chairperson Nasim Ashraf told a news conference that Lawson had been preferred over two other short-listed candidates, Dav Whatmore and Richard Done.
Residents of state-subsidised housing in Cape Town are to march to Parliament on Tuesday, protesting against the poor quality of their homes, the Anti-Eviction Campaign said. Residents have nicknamed the N2 Gateway housing project the ”gateway to hell” and were planning to march to Parliament to protest directly to Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu.
The way affirmative action is being implemented in South Africa is to be discussed between President Thabo Mbeki and the main opposition party in Parliament, the Democratic Alliance (DA). Anchen Dreyer, who speaks for the DA on labour issues, said on Monday that when the president answered a parliamentary question last month, he agreed to meet them for such discussions.
Water containing some radioactive materials leaked from a nuclear power plant in Japan after a strong earthquake on Monday, a spokesperson for the firm running the facility said. "We have confirmed that water containing a slight amount of radioactive materials leaked out of the facility," said Shougo Fukuda, a spokesperson for Tokyo Electric.
Refugee camps should be set up near the border to house and feed Zimbabweans fleeing their country, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Monday. ”If government takes its humanitarian duties seriously, [the Department of] Home Affairs will immediately begin to investigate setting up refugee camps,” the DA’s Mark Lowe said.
Africa’s top banking group by assets, Standard Bank, has received approval to merge its Stanbic Nigeria unit with IBTC Chartered Bank, the firm said on Monday. Standard Bank said it had increased its offer price to 16 naira per share from 11,74 naira per IBTC share, valuing the offer at -million.
Hiring security firms to guard certain police stations was proof that the police had failed to combat crime, Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) KwaZulu-Natal leader Lionel Mtshali said on Monday. Mtshali said: ”Presumably, the idea is to free fully-trained police officers to perform their core function of preventing and combating crime”.
Children in Gaza and Zimbabwe desperately need help to ensure they have food, clean water and schooling, a senior United Nations official said on Monday. Dan Toole, director of emergency programmes for Unicef, said a shortage of donor cash was having a dramatic effect in the territories.
An Ethiopian court sentenced 35 opposition members to life in prison on Monday, rebuffing a prosecution request that they be executed for trying to overthrow the government, treason and inciting violence. The remaining eight defendants were ordered to serve terms of between 18 months and 18 years.