Vrot Snoek was loitering outside at the African National Congress national general council last week, waiting to see if he’s going to have to dump the ”100% Mbeki” T-shirts he’s been printing. That’s where he heard a nearby police walky-talky crackle, ”Car for Minister van Schalkwyk.” The fuzz holding the receiver looked nonplussed. ”Wie?” he asked.
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Four blasts tore through London’s transport system during the morning rush hour in a choreographed series of terrorist attacks. Police said at least 37 people were killed, 21 near King’s Cross station, and the ambulance service said it had treated around 350 people, with more than 40 of those in a serious condition.
As Britain reeled with shock following Thursday’s bomb attacks in London, campaigners feared that the Group of Eight’s (G8) lofty ambitions on Africa and Earth’s climate would be pushed aside amid the outpouring of grief. Campaigners fear that their causes now face being dispatched back to the wilderness.
Hurricane Dennis strengthened with winds of 168kph on Thursday and threatened to become a major storm as it uprooted trees and flooded homes in southern Haiti and swept away a car in Jamaica, readying for a direct strike. Forecasters said the storm could strike the United States anywhere from Florida to Louisiana on Sunday or Monday.
At least 37 people were killed and about 700 injured after four bombs ripped through London’s underground network and tore the roof off a bus during Thursday-morning rush hour. Leaders from around the world have expressed shock and anger.
The Zimbabwean government put the extent of displacement under its urban slum-clearance campaign at 130 000 families on Wednesday, saying it will not re-accommodate them all. Minister counsellor in the Zimbabwean embassy Pritchard Zhou told a seminar in Pretoria the operation has ”won praise countrywide”.
The Ugandan Parliament has overwhelmingly voted to amend the country’s Constitution to outlaw gay marriage and impose criminal penalties on same-sex couples who wed, a spokesperson for the legislature said on Thursday. The amendment says that ”marriage is lawful only if entered into between a man and a woman”.
Former president Nelson Mandela will not have a high-profile birthday — on July 18 — this year, the Nelson Mandela Foundation said on Thursday.
Soccer player Benedict Vilakazi, who is accused of raping a 15-year-old girl, was granted bail of R1 000 in the Johannesburg Regional Court on Thursday afternoon. This follows an application by his legal team to have his bail reinstated after magistrate Naomi Manaka earlier revoked it when he failed to appear before her at 8.30am.