Residents of Stilfontein told stories of skidding cars and moving houses after a large earthquake on Wednesday. "It was terrible. I got so scared," said one resident. Meanwhile, an expert said the earthquake, which drove thousands of miners to the surface at Stilfontein, was "a secondary effect" of mining activity.
The upcoming Zimbabwean elections should be postponed, a leader of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said at a picket outside the Zimbabwe embassy in Pretoria on Wednesday. Meanwhile, South Africa’s ambassador to Zimbabwe has not been advised of the appeal of Zimbabwe’s attorney general against the early release of 62 suspected mercenaries.
After eight months detained in Japan awaiting deportation to the United States, the former world chess champion Bobby Fischer may soon be free, his supporters claimed on Tuesday. Fischer (62) on Tuesday, was held last July when trying to leave Japan for the Philippines on an invalid passport which had been revoked by the US.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s commission on Africa has come up with a road map to recovery for the continent, but countries must now cooperate and focus on priorities if the project is to succeed, the only American member of the task force said.
Sudan needs almost -billion for reconstruction and development over the next two years to recover from two decades of north-south civil war, an assessment team said on Wednesday. The team, made up of representatives from the Khartoum government and the ex-rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, said ,8-billion, would be required until 2007.
Iran’s love of goldfish as a table-top symbol of good luck costs the lives of five million of the creatures every year, a press report said on Wednesday. From March to early April, when Iranians celebrate Norooz — New Year in the Persian calendar — millions of the small fish are bred in unsanitary pools and transferred in buckets and tanks to the big cities.
Japanese police have found the mummified body of a 107-year-old man, who died up to a decade ago, wearing a clean kimono at his house near Osaka, an official said on Wednesday. An official with the Itami city hall said the city is considering asking the man’s family to return gifts it has received since 1999 as a token of the man’s longevity.
Nigeria’s House of Representatives has called on the government to halt further repayments on the country’s staggering -billion in external debts. The motion, approved by the Lower House, said the debt burden is a brake on social and economic development, and the amount owed continues to increase because of accrued interest.
Two people were killed and nine were reported missing in Algerian floods this week following heavy rain in the Sahara, according to reports on Wednesday. About 70 travellers were trapped when wadis (valleys) suddenly flooded in the downpours on Sunday and Monday and had to be rescued by army helicoters, newspapers reported.
Somalia’s new environment minister asked the United Nations on Wednesday to investigate possible hazardous waste that was washed ashore by last year’s tsunami. The waste may be causing illnesses among local people. The minister said strange objects washed ashore all along his country’s coastline when the tsunami struck on December 26 last year.