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/ 20 November 2006
At least 20 people were wounded in gun battles between rival activists as a transport blockade to force the removal of controversial election officials paralysed Bangladesh on Monday, police and witnesses said. The wounded, including a police officer caught in crossfire, were taken to hospitals following battles in western Natore, 230km from the capital Dhaka.
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/ 20 November 2006
Assets have been seized from three people arrested in connection with a R25-million trucking scam, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said on Monday. ”Assets seized by the asset forfeiture unit include property, three vehicles, a boat [rubber duck] with carriage, a 9mm firearm and three bank accounts,” said NPA spokesperson Lucinda Moonieya.
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/ 20 November 2006
A powerful explosion ripped through a train in eastern India on Monday, killing five people and wounding 25 seriously, police said. The explosion hit two crowded coaches near a remote railway station in West Bengal state, about 665km north of state capital Kolkata, Raj Kanojia, a top police officer, told the media.
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/ 20 November 2006
Buyers are slowly lining up for Schabir Shaik’s shares in African Defence Systems, but no decision has been made on who will have first shot at what are often viewed as the crown jewels in the crumbling Nkobi empire. Mo Shaik, the brother of the convicted Durban businessman, said on Monday that ”there are various interested parties”, but he would not disclose who they were.
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/ 20 November 2006
More than 2Â 000 civilians from western Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have fled across the Congo River to escape fighting between supporters of rival presidential contenders, the United Nations said on Monday. The clashes in DRC’s Equateur province occurred days after electoral authorities last week announced a provisional result in an October 29 presidential run-off.
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/ 20 November 2006
Failure to deal with preventable chronic diseases such as those induced by smoking and overeating could erode the gains made in combating other types of disease, public health expert Dr Derek Yach said on Monday. Yach, director of global health programmes at the Rockefeller Foundation, was speaking at a conference in Cape Town.
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/ 20 November 2006
Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa and his counterpart from Oman, Bin Ali Sultan Maqbool, signed a trade and technical cooperation agreement in Pretoria on Monday. Mpahlwa said the economic growth currently being experienced by South Africa allowed for many more partners and that Oman should be one of them.
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/ 20 November 2006
A masked man wearing explosives and brandishing rifles opened fire after storming a school in the western German town of Emsdetten on Monday, wounding at least 11 people before he committed suicide. Police identified the man as an 18-year old former pupil at the Scholl secondary school where the attack took place.
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/ 20 November 2006
Embattled Ekurhuleni metro police chief Robert McBride shot at protesting municipal employees who were calling for him to be suspended, the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) alleged on Monday. ”He was the first one to shoot at workers,” said Samwu’s East Rand branch secretary Koena Ramatlou of McBride after the protests.
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/ 20 November 2006
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan called on Monday for stronger efforts to protect the world against biological weapons, which he said pose a growing threat due to advances in science and technology. Annan told the Convention on Biological Weapons that awareness of the dangers had been heightened by the twin global focus on terrorism and natural diseases.