Fresh factional fighting rocked the lawless Somali capital on Wednesday as a tentative truce failed to hold and Islamic militia and gunmen loyal to a United States-backed warlord alliance battled for a fourth day. Heavy machine gun, artillery and rocket fire resounded through streets of bullet-scarred Mogadishu after the collapse of the truce.
Former communist Giorgio Napolitano (80) was elected Italy’s new president on Wednesday, gaining an absolute majority in a Parliamentary vote that underlined the country’s political divisions. The election of centre-left leader Romano Prodi’s candidate was bitterly opposed by the conservatives of outgoing Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday that Iran would face "isolation" if it did not establish a nuclear programme that meets international standards. Speaking after talks with Javier Solana, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Rice also stressed that Iran faced a United Nations Security Council resolution over its nuclear programme.
Zimbabwe on Wednesday postponed the release of monthly figures that were expected to show the country’s inflation cross the 1 000% threshold, one of the highest rates in the world. Samuel Undenge, deputy minister for economic development, said the results were not released "because of a logistical issue" but would be announced "in due course".
More than 12-million people in the world are locked in a modern form of slavery, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) said on Wednesday as France marked its abolition of the practice more than 150 years ago. The ILO has said that globalisation is helping to fuel forced labour, especially in Europe.
Gases and welding products group African Oxygen (Afrox) is to invest approximately R350-millionin several major new gas production facilities around South Africa during the year. Craig Falconer, Afrox’s general manager process gas solutions, says this expenditure results from increased demand from the company’s existing customer base as well as by new business wins.
Six weeks after taking office, the Western-shunned Hamas government presides over Palestinian areas on the brink of collapse due to the stop in international aid flows. Long queues at empty petrol stations in the West Bank were the latest sign on Wednesday of the crisis after an Israeli company stopped deliveries the day before.
The poor Constitution. Its 10th birthday on Monday could never compete for coverage in the face of the Jacob Zuma rape-trial verdict. But Zuma himself linked the two. After being acquitted, he reportedly told his supporters that the media had tarnished his image, and hadn’t waited for the court to find him guilty. They had said ”I was guilty when I wasn’t”.
Europe faces an increasing threat from attacks with long-range missiles and could help avert the danger by building a missile-defence network, a senior North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) official warned on Wednesday. "There is a growing threat of long-range missile attacks," said Marshall Billingslea, head of Nato’s Conference of National Armaments Directors.
JSE-listed niche specialist banking and financial-services group Sasfin Holdings on Wednesday announced the acquisition of specialist Mauritian registered bank SBM Nedbank International from Nedcor Group for its net-asset value, plus a 5% premium, a total of approximately -million.