Zimbabwe’s Parliament has rejected an adverse report on its own electoral reforms, despite the report having been written by a parliamentary committee. Heated debate between the ruling Zanu-PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change this week saw the report being thrown out by 75 votes to 37.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=19686">Zimbabwe refugees may be sent back</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?cg=BreakingNews-National&ao=125651">Zuma: SA does not take sides in Zim</a>

Cape Town authorities were considering on Tuesday night whether to launch a hunt for the great white shark that killed an elderly woman off a Cape Town beach — the second attack on swimmers in the area this year. They were also debating whether to stop tourists feeding sharks, a practice that may have encouraged the animals to linger in the waters.

A suspected mercenary on trial in Equatorial Guinea for an alleged British-led coup plot involving Mark Thatcher retracted his confession on Tuesday and said he had been tortured. ”There was no attempted coup d’état in this country,” the South African arms dealer Nick du Toit told a court in the capital, Malabo. ”I had to tell these people what they wanted. It was the only way to stay alive.”

The African singer Papa Wemba, known as the king of rumba, was found guilty on Tuesday of involvement in a people smuggling network which brought hundreds of Congolese into France, disguised as band members. A Paris court sentenced him to 30 months and fined him 10 000 euros for helping immigrants illegally obtain visas by passing them off as band members.

Developing countries will enjoy their best year of economic growth in 2004, producing a ”spectacular” drop in poverty around the world, the World Bank said on Tuesday. Releasing its annual report on global economic prospects, the World Bank said developing countries will register growth of 6,1% this year and just above 5% in 2005 and 2006.

When Schabir Shaik heard that his accountant was leaving Nkobi Holdings he stopped her final salary, the Durban High Court heard on Wednesday. Former Nkobi accountant Ceila Bester, who is being cross-examined in the fraud and corruption trial against Shaik, told the court she had resigned because she was unhappy with the way in which Nkobi did its books, and in particular the write-off
of various accounts.

The family of Margaret Hassan on Tuesday night accepted that the aid worker taken hostage by Iraqi insurgents a month ago had probably been murdered, after analysis of a video which showed a masked gunman shooting a blindfolded woman in the head.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?cg=BreakingNews-InternationalNews&ao=125665">’We believe she has been murdered'</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?cg=BreakingNews-InternationalNews&ao=125660">US, Iraqi troops target Mosul</a>

South Africa’s educational system has to deal with the legacy of apartheid. Many poorer, mainly black, households do not have access to schools with functioning maths and science departments. Centre for Development and Enterprise research shows that almost one-fifth of secondary schools do not offer senior certificate maths and science at all, while a third of the schools that do achieve pass rates between nought and 19%.