Italy’s centre-left opposition on Monday ousted Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi after an acrimonious election campaign, exit polls showed, ending the tycoon’s flamboyant five-year hold on power. While officials of Romani Prodi’s campaign refused to declare victory, supporters flocked to his campaign’s headquarters voicing both jubilation and relief.
At least 100 people were killed on Monday when a fire swept through large tents packed with shoppers at a trade fair in north India, police said. ”At least 100 people are dead,” Rajiv Sabarwal, police chief of Meerut, 80km north of New Delhi, told Agence France-Presse (AFP). Witnesses said bodies were charred beyond recognition and had been scattered throughout the stalls.
The opposition Democratic Alliance will on Tuesday submit a private member’s Bill in Parliament that seeks to amend the Constitution so as to disallow public representatives from becoming a member of another party while retaining their seats — so-called ”floor-crossing”, according to DA head Tony Leon.
Colleagues and families are increasingly the targets of stressed of police members, a psychologist said recently. Christine Jordaan, who has treated more than 900 police members for post-traumatic stress disorder, also warned that recent incidents, in which two policemen went on killing sprees that resulted in 11 deaths, could spark a ”suicide epidemic”.
The top-ranking United States senator on Monday downplayed as ”overstated” media reports saying US President George Bush was planning military options to knock out Iran’s nuclear programme, but stopped short of denying them outright. ”We believe there has been much overstatement in the American press over the last several days with regard to the use of military force in Iran,” Senate majority leader Bill Frist said.
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A second church pastor told the Johannesburg High Court on Monday that he was accused of rape by Jacob Zuma’s rape accuser. The only reason that pastor Peete Mbambo could think of for this was that he was putting pressure on her to produce a matric certificate to further her studies. He had helped her process her application to become a pastor.
Germany captain Michael Ballack is leaving Bayern Munich because he will make more money elsewhere, most likely at Chelsea, according to Bayern general manager Uli Hoeness. ”It was always clear that Michael was not interested in learning a new language or a new culture, but a new currency,” Hoeness was quoted as saying.
At least 14 people were killed on Monday when a Kenyan military plane carrying government officials and several lawmakers crashed near a game park in central Kenya, authorities said. ”Fourteen people died in the crash and we have yet to get information on the others,” Major General Paul Opiyo told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Whistle-blowers under the Protected Disclosures Act (PDA) were not being safeguarded enough against reprisals from their employers, Open Democracy Advice Centre (Odac) Chief Operating Officer Alison Tilley said on Monday. Even though corruption was widespread in South Africa, not enough employees were coming forward to disclose what they knew about wrongdoing in the workplace, Tilley said.
At least three people were killed and nine wounded in a gun battle over United Nations food aid in drought-stricken central Somalia early on Monday, police and relief workers said. The incident, which underscores the difficulties faced by aid agencies working in the lawless nation, occurred shortly after midnight near the town of Baidoa, they said.