Three people were killed and at least six injured when tornadoes moved through north Texas, a county official said on Wednesday. At least one tornado touched down late on Tuesday near Anna, about 60km north of Dallas. Tornadoes were also reported in the Texas Panhandle town of Childress and in south-eastern Oklahoma.
Fierce fighting in the Somali capital subsided on Wednesday after dozens were killed in 72 hours of pitched battles between Islamic militiamen and gunmen loyal to a United States-backed warlord alliance. At least 40 people were killed and nearly 200 wounded in clashes that began on Sunday.
A white Zimbabwean security expert who has been in custody for two months on conspiracy charges has finally had a trial date set for the end of June, reports said on Wednesday. President Robert Mugabe’s government maintains that Michael Hitschmann was at the heart of a terrorist plot that could have seen the Zimbabwean leader assassinated.
A Cambodian couple who mummified their deceased premature baby to keep at home as a lucky charm had broken no laws and were merely adhering to ancient superstitions, police said on Wednesday. Cambodians believe that the mummified bodies of children and some primates born prematurely have powerful magical powers.
Middlesbrough manager Steve McClaren is an habitually cautious man, but in the past few weeks even he has allowed himself to muse on whether his side’s progress to the Uefa Cup final might be their destiny. Twenty years after the club went into administration, Boro have come from three goals down to win both the quarterfinal and the semifinal.
Islamic militiamen and secular fighters battled on Wednesday for control of Somalia’s capital despite promises of a ceasefire, as the death toll rose to at least 90, with nearly 200 others wounded. The sounds of heavy weapons echoed through the city, but the fighting was not as intense as it had been in the previous three days.
The cause of former Kaizer Chiefs midfielder Pule Patrick ”Ace” Ntsoelengoe’s death is still unknown, Gauteng police said on Wednesday. Ntsoelengoe (54) was found dead by a Chiefs fan in his car at a hotel in Lenasia, southern Johannesburg, on Monday.
South Africa’s competitiveness has improved from 46th place in 2005 to 44th in 2006, according to this year’s World Competitiveness Report, released on Wednesday by Swiss international business school IMD. SA’s ranking is out of a total of 61 countries.
The public is worried about how the judiciary operates and the impartiality of judges, a survey released on Wednesday has found. Seventy-three percent of those polled felt it was easy to bribe justice officials and 85% thought that the crime-to-punishment process took too long, said Research Surveys, which released the poll.
The case against an IT salesman involved in an alleged hoax e-mail conspiracy within the African National Congress was postponed in the Pretoria Regional Court on Wednesday. The case against Muziwendoda Sikhona Kunene was postponed to June 26 to allow Kunene to arrange a new defence team.