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.
Pope John Paul II made a surprise appearance at a hospital window on Wednesday, giving the Roman Catholic faithful their third glimpse of him since he was rushed back to the clinic for throat surgery nearly two weeks ago. The 84-year-old pontiff’s brief appearance came on a day when he traditionally holds his weekly public audience at the Vatican.
Twenty-five primary-school children died on Wednesday from apparent food poisoning in the central Philippine province of Bohol, officials said. The students from the San Jose Elementary School in the town of Mabini had eaten snacks made from cassava roots in their mid-morning break before falling ill, officials said.
A number of buildings had to be evacuated in Stilfontein, near Klerksdorp in the North West, on Wednesday after an earth tremor preliminarily measuring five on the Richter scale. About 3Â 200 miners at DRDGold’s operations near Stilfontein were being evacuated after the tremor. Thirteen miners were injured in the tremor.
Media, entertainment and leisure holding group Johnnic Holdings has named acting chief and financial director Christine Ramon its CEO with immediate effect, the group announced on Wednesday. Meanwhile, at the general meeting of shareholders held on Wednesday, Johnnic shareholders approved the unbundling of Johncom.
Bill Clinton is to have another operation to remove scar tissue and fluid from his left chest, following on from his quadruple bypass surgery in September, his office said on Tuesday. The statement said that the procedure was a ”recognised, occasional consequence of open heart surgery”, and carried a low risk.
Once it was the mighty Jordan river, a crossroads of civilisations and continents, and a favourite of pilgrims seeking baptism in its waters. Now just about the only thing that flows for large parts of the year, keeping the river alive, is sewage. Decades of competition for water have turned the lower Jordan river, running between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea, into little more than a drainage ditch.
Volkswagen, Europe’s biggest carmaker, on Tuesday clung to its forecast of a recovery in profits this year, despite warning that rising raw material prices and the strength of the euro would damage earnings. The group, which saw pre-tax income slump 19% last year to â,¬1,1-billion, issued an unmistakable profits warning for the current quarter.
Looking at the final results posted by Metropolitan Holdings on Wednesday, the group’s strong new life-business growth in most segments shows that it is continuing to gain market share from most of its competitors, particularly in the area of employee benefits, according to Metropolitan CEO Peter Doyle.