Rescue teams struggled on Tuesday to reach parts of Indonesia’s Sulawesi island where about 60 people were feared dead and 8 000 displaced by landslides and floods caused by days of torrential rains. Days of heavy downpour have caused landslides and floods up to three metres high.
A 35-year old policeman who was severely burnt in a fire at a Durban police residence died in the early hours of Tuesday morning, police said. The policeman, Sergeant Craig Roach, suffered burns to 65% of his body in a blaze in his 13th floor flat in the South African Police Service’s Natalia building on Monday morning.
The National Civilian Safety and Security Action (Nacissa) lobby group on Tuesday urged South Africans to deduct expenditure on private security from their taxable income this year. Spokesperson Conrad Beyers said a substantial portion of South Africans’ income tax should be used by the government for safeguarding its citizens.
Protests in Soweto against poor service delivery should be a warning to the government that people were losing patience, the Independent Democrats said on Tuesday. Party leader Patricia de Lille said that while people understood the history and the backlog of service delivery, they were no longer willing to accept that there was not enough money.
Spanish intelligence has arrested a suspected double agent who had been sending state secrets to Russia, the head of the National Intelligence Agency (CNI) said on Tuesday, according to local radio. The double agent had been working for Russia until 2004, CNI head Alberto Saiz said, according to Cadena Ser radio.
Zimbabwe’s central bank on Tuesday said it was indefinitely postponing a much awaited mid-year monetary policy statement due next week to give time to analyse the implications of government price controls and an imminent supplementary budget.
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A beaming Nelson Mandela cut birthday cake, gave hugs and received gifts at his annual children’s party in Johannesburg on Tuesday. The children sang Happy Birthday to the 89-year-old shortly after his arrival at the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund offices.
It arrived in a blaze of publicity and had frenzied gadget fans queuing for days before its launch last month. But just weeks after Apple’s iPhone was unleashed on shoppers in the United States, researchers say they have discovered how to hack into it and steal personal information.
Leading New Zealand rugby referee Paul Honiss says the All Blacks should chat more to referees, believing it would boost their chance of winning tight Tests. Honiss encouraged senior All Black players to follow the lead of veteran Wallaby halfback George Gregan, who has a reputation for persistently getting in the ear of referees, writes the New Zealand Herald.
OR Tambo International Airport should be expanded and not closed down to make way for a new airport in order to cope with the huge expected increases in air-passenger flows in the province, the Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) said on Tuesday.