Torrential rain has triggered flooding and power outages throughout the Washington region, shutting down some federal offices and disrupting transport links to the United States capital on Monday. Commuters faced long delays around Washington after rain pounded the east coast overnight.
Peace talks aimed at finally ending Burundi’s civil war foundered on Monday as the country’s last active rebel group stormed out of the negotiations, officials said. A senior Tanzanian official participating in the discussions between Bujumbura and the National Liberation Forces said the rebels walked out after threats from South African mediators.
Six months after being convicted of the theft of a lion cub, a Cato Ridge man was charged in Pietermaritzburg on Monday with stealing an endangered 75-year-old giant Seychelles tortoise from the same complainant, the Natal Lion Park Zoo. Two sangomas allegedly bought the tortoise — presumably to use as muti.
South Africa’s municipalities are owed R19,2-billion and do not expect to recover more than 50% of this debt. Municipalities’ failure to effectively collect money for services rendered is severely impacting on service delivery, Auditor General Shauket Fakie said on Monday. Johannesburg alone has made a bad-debt provision of R7,2-billion.
The findings of a probe into recent damage to a Koeberg nuclear-power generator and resulting power outages in the Western Cape are expected to be presented to Parliament in mid-August. Minister of Public Enterprises Alec Erwin will announce the findings to the National Assembly, probably on August 16, his spokesperson Gaynor Kast said on Monday.
Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula said on Monday that he was very concerned about the serious and violent nature of crimes against ”soft targets”. He said police action in high-crime areas sometimes drove criminals out to other areas and places considered to be soft targets.
Iran has threatened to allow traffickers to flood Europe with narcotics unless its costly border-security operation is given a massive hike in United Nations funding. The Islamic republic’s new anti-drugs head said Iran had asked the UN Office on Drugs and Crime for a hefty -million in order to combat smugglers from neighbouring Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The new supreme leader of Somalia’s Islamic courts that seized control of Mogadishu this month from a United States-backed warlord alliance said on Monday that Sharia law will be imposed throughout the country. Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, a controversial hard-line cleric designated a global terrorist by the US, denied US charges against him.
Three policing agencies are to meet on Tuesday to discuss ways to step up the fight against the continuing stonings on Cape Town’s highways, according to Western Cape provincial minister for community safety Leonard Ramatlakane. This follows the weekend death of city motorist Nolan Daniels, hit by a brick thrown through a window of his car as he drove along the R300.
Four armed robbers on Monday overpowered a Coin security guard and made of with tens of thousands of rand that he had collected at the offices of Sunday newspaper publisher RCP Media in Pretoria. Police spokesperson Inspector Katlego Mogale said: ”He was accosted by four suspects, all armed. They made off with the money in a black Toyota Tazz.”