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Anyone who has seen the escaped accused in the Boeremag treason trial should phone a newly set up hotline, police said on Thursday. More than 24 hours after Herman van Rooyen and Rudi Gouws disappeared from the Pretoria High Court where their trial for treason was being heard, police were no closer to catching them.
Violence flared in early morning protests in Cape Town on Thursday with vehicles and a train torched, the Cape Argus reported. Its website said barricades put up by protesters also caused havoc on the city’s roads. Demonstrators in a string of protests included striking security guards — despite a union promise that guards would not hold protests this week.
Idriss Déby Itno seemed assured on Thursday of re-election as Chad’s president, but the expected victory has already been clouded by new threats of violence by armed rebels in the desert country. Independent observers said the poll itself on Wednesday drew a low turnout following a boycott call by the opposition amid charges of vote-rigging.
Steve McClaren was named as the new England manager, in succession to Sven-Goran Eriksson, by the Football Association on Thursday. The Middlesbrough manager, currently Eriksson’s deputy in the England set-up, will take over from the Swede following the World Cup finals in Germany and will take up his new role from August 1 on a four-year contract.
Rising rodent numbers in Africa are raising the chance of an outbreak of diseases such bubonic plague, a conference in South Africa heard on Thursday. The Rats and Human Health in Africa conference, attended by scientists and doctors from 20 countries, found rodent numbers in Africa are thriving as municipalities with growing populations struggle to manage sewage and refuse collection.
United States forces are ”zooming in” on al-Qaeda’s Iraq frontman Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who may be in Baghdad or a nearby town, a US military spokesperson said on Thursday. Major General Rick Lynch said that during raids in Yusufiyeh, a town south of the capital, coalition forces had found footage of the Internet video message delivered by al-Zarqawi last month.
Two Swedish TV producers who went missing in the Kalahari turned up safe and sound after fleeing a car seconds before it exploded and wandering for days in the desert, an executive from their station said on Thursday. ”They are very relieved and happy. They are very well,” said Helga Baagoe, news director at Sweden’s SVT public television station.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions repeated its support for striking security guards on Thursday, announcing a number of events in support of the strike. Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said the federation will immediately establish strike committees to coordinate solidarity actions.
African Union leaders will meet on Thursday on the Darfur crisis hours before the expiration of a deadline set for the Sudanese parties to sign a peace agreement, officials said. ”The meeting is temporarily set to begin at 6pm local time in the Nigerian presidency,” AU spokesperson Noureddine Mezni told Agence France-Presse in Abuja.