There are no major safety concerns about nuclear waste management in South Africa, the National Nuclear Regulator (NNR) said in Cape Town on Wednesday. NNR Nuclear Technology and waste programme manager Thiagan Pather was speaking at a public participation forum.
The only people who said crime was out of control in the Western Cape were the Democratic Alliance, Western Cape provincial community safety minister Leonard Ramatlakane said on Wednesday. He said calls for him to step down were ”frivolous” and something to which he would not respond.
Construction of the R25-billion Gautrain project is on schedule, the Bombela Civils Joint Venture said on Wednesday. Project director Charles-Etienne Perrier said construction of the 10 stations that will link Pretoria and Johannesburg as well as Sandton and OR Tambo International Airport, is on schedule despite a ”few difficulties”. The airport-Sandton link will be completed by mid-2010.
A two-year-old who got lost on a farm near Jansenville in the Eastern Cape survived a night alone in the snow and rain, police said on Wednesday. Ronaldo Spogter toddled along behind his deaf grandfather, who was unaware of him, climbed over two barbed-wire fences and spent a mid-winter night outside.
Côte d’Ivoire Prime Minister Guillaume Soro said he knows who tried to kill him by firing rockets at his plane last week and it was not members of his own movement, local media reported Wednesday. ”It is an attack and we know who did it. There are traces, but I am not going to pre-empt the investigation,” he was quoted as saying.
Fresh gunfire erupted at a besieged mosque in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Wednesday as about 1 000 militant students showed their defiance after 700 others surrendered to the government. Helicopter gunships circled overhead and armoured personnel carriers surrounded Lal Masjid, or the Red Mosque.
There have been 1 600 applications for taxis in Gauteng to head for the minibus graveyard in line with the second phase of the taxi-recapitalisation programme (TRP) in the province. The provincial transport department said on Wednesday that 75 old taxis had been scrapped since the end of March.
The death toll from this year’s monsoon climbed to 474 on Wednesday as blinding rains lashed eastern India, according to officials and media reports. Two more deaths in the past 24 hours pushed the death toll to 13 in drenched West Bengal, officials said in the state capital, Kolkata, where knee-deep flood waters invaded homes and offices.
Amazon.com will begin selling high-definition independent films in the HD DVD format through its on-demand DVD-printing service, the company said. The web retailer said it will waive processing fees for the first 1 000 films it accepts for production by its CustomFlix Labs subsidiary.
A woman in New Mexico tried to escape from jail guards using baby powder, cocoa butter and lots of socks, deputies said. Anita Rachel Thomas (20) was able to wriggle out of leg irons because she was wearing six pairs of socks, authorities said. She used cocoa butter to slide the leg irons and handcuffs from around her ankles and wrists.