President Thabo Mbeki does not have to give reasons for why he dismissed deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, the Presidency said on Thursday. A decision by Mbeki had been taken and it had been implemented, said presidential spokesperson Mukoni Ratshitanga. ”The president doesn’t have to provide reasons.”
Her blonde hair dripping with salt water, top Austrian kitesurfer Gabi Steidl cuts through the translucent, emerald green waves of the Indian Ocean. Kitesurfing — a hi-tech hybrid of surfing and kite-flying — is fast winning converts: riders harnessed to kites who stand on boards and skim, surf or even leap, often hanging in the air for several seconds.
It has pristine beaches, lush highlands and an exotic cultural mix — and lies just a few hours’ flight east of the Indonesian resort island of Bali. But currently almost the only overseas visitors to East Timor are foreign troops, journalists and aid workers after Asia’s youngest nation descended into turmoil last year.
A total of 28 people died and hundreds of homes were destroyed by a series of forest fires that have swept through parts of South Africa and Swaziland since the end of last month, officials said on Thursday. ”Twenty-six deaths have been reported thus far” in South Africa alone, said a statement issued after a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
The hourly chimes of Big Ben are to fall silent for a month while maintenance work is carried out on one of London’s most famous landmarks, officials said on Wednesday. Work will include replacing the strike train, which controls the hourly bell and the going train, which operates the clock.
New York commuters beat a wary path to work on Thursday, the day after a freak storm plunged the city into chaos, felling trees, flooding roads and jamming the city’s vast underground train network. Streets were blocked by fallen trees, wrecked cars and rubble from damaged homes.
Thousands of women gathered in Kimberley on Thursday for national Women’s Day celebrations, some bussed in from as far as Pampierstad. Groups of singing women had been arriving at Galeshewe Stadium throughout the morning. Many were dressed in the green and black colours of the African National Congress Women’s League.
Opera superstar Luciano Pavarotti has been admitted to hospital in northern Italy, a hospital spokesperson said on Thursday. The spokesperson said Pavarotti had been taken to the Policlinico of Modena hospital on Tuesday for medical checks and has been there since.
Pakistan’s beleaguered President Pervez Musharraf has no plans to impose emergency rule, contrary to widespread reports that he was about to announce the authoritarian measure, the president of the ruling party said on Thursday. ”There is no possibility of an emergency,” Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, the president of Pakistan Muslim League, said.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is nearing a deal with the opposition to end a political crisis in his country after South Africa tried to broker an agreement, a document obtained by Reuters on Wednesday indicated. A confidential report due to be presented to leaders of the Southern Africa Development Community says ”progress” has been made in talks.