Table of contents for 2023-07-24 in Mercury

Power utility Eskom has confirmed it will overshoot its Open Cycle Gas Turbines (OCGT) budget on diesel for its turbines and Independent Power Producers (IPPs) with likely recriminations from the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA). Harsh winter with incidents of snowfall and frequent breakdowns in the coal fired power plants has forced Eskom’s hand to lean heavily on the use of its OCGTs to keep the lights on, albeit with high levels of load shedding. When questioned whether Eskom was still within the NERSA proscribed use of OCGTs, Eskom said: “No, the OCGT usage is exceeding and will exceed the NERSA proscribed use of OCGTS.” Given the cold fronts and subsequent higher demand, has forced Eskom to utilise more of its OCGTs to bridge the generation gap.…

SPORTS Minister Zizi Kodwa lauded Banyana Banyana’s brave fight during their 2-1 loss to Sweden in their opening game of the Fifa Women’s World Cup yesterday. The African champions lost their opening game in Group G against the No 3-ranked nation after having taken the lead through Hildah Magaia early in the second half. Despite the loss, Banyana’s fearless mentality and ability to take the game to the Blagult from start to finish received compliments from most observers, more so because they were heavily regarded as the underdogs. Sweden are one of the dark horses of the tournament and were expected to mop the floor with Banyana, who had not beaten them in four previous meetings. At their hotel in Wellington, the team were given a heroes’ welcome by some…

What happens when a human gets heatstroke? How can we protect ourselves in a warming planet? To answer these burning questions, US researchers have deployed a robot that can breathe, shiver and sweat. For humans, extreme heat represents a potentially lethal threat. Now ANDI – a humanoid robot at Arizona State University – is the world’s first outdoor thermal mannequin. Professor Konrad Rykaczewski said ANDI “measures how a human responds to extreme climate”. ANDI – Advanced Newton Dynamic Instrument – resembles a crash-test dummy. Its epoxy/carbon fibre skin conceals sensors that assess heat diffused through the body. An internal cooling system and pores allow ANDI to sweat. Researchers hope the robot will provide a better understanding of hyperthermia – when a body overheats. | AFP…

Save, and never touch, one third of all the money you earn. Few people regret having saved from an early age. Few things upset adulthood as powerfully as constant financial pressures. Honour your family and extended family relationships above all other relationships. If you are a brother or a son, a niece or an aunt, be the best one you can be. Learn to live without blaming others. While others are indeed imperfect, blaming others for anything you are will seldom get you to where you really want to go. Forgive, truly forgive, but remember. To forgive and forget is often foolish and often impossible. Remembering is not the same as holding something against another. Find your voice and don’t let others try to take it from you. Finding your…

The DA has revealed that a staggering amount of nearly R400 billion was allocated as bailouts for state-owned entities (SOEs) in the past decade – a clear indication of the endemic corruption and incompetence that plagues the ANC-led government. This revelation is particularly galling given the dismal performance of these SOEs, which have consistently failed to provide the basic services that they were established to deliver. SOEs by their very nature have little or no competition and in the hands of astute and competent business executives would be most lucrative entities. Take Eskom for example, it controls and has the resources to have the monopoly when it comes to power generation in South Africa yet we are constantly in a state of darkness. The same applies to Transnet which has…

Lack of maintenance and poor infrastructure, influx of contraband and non-compliance to policies and procedures by warders have been listed as among the reasons why more than 200 inmates have escaped from prisons across the country in the past five years. This is according to Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola when he was responding to parliamentary questions from EFF MP Yoliswa Yako. Yako wrote to Lamola enquiring about the number of prisoners who escaped from correctional facilities over the past five years. She also asked about the conditions that made escapes from jail possible for prisoners. In his response, Lamola said a total of 256 prisoners had escaped from custody in the past five years. His response showed that 94 escaped in the 2018/19 financial year, 34 the…

Authorities have arrested three individuals suspected of human trafficking and rescued three Thai women who were being held in a house in Garsfontein, east of Pretoria. The Hawks said it was alerted to the situation when one of the victims escaped and reported to the Thai Embassy that she and others had been detained for sexual exploitation. Hawks spokesperson Colonel Katlego Mogale said: “The information was followed up. Contact was made with one of the victims who was still being held against her will.” Mogale said Hawks serious organised crime investigation detectives, supported by the Tshwane Metro Police Department’s K9 unit and the SAPS Pretoria K9 unit, gained access to the house and rescued two women. The suspects are due in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court soon. Major-General Ebrahim Kadwa, the…

ETHEKWINI Municipality has made an impassioned call for retired engineers to “rejoin” the City’s Water and Sanitation Unit to assist with the management of its infrastructure and the training of future engineers. The metro issued an Expression of Interest call for retired professional engineers and technologists to supplement water and sanitation engineering capacity and to provide support to engineering mentorship programmes. Councillors in the municipality have welcomed the move, saying the unit is in dire need of input from skilled and experienced professionals to deal with the crumbling infrastructure and service delivery problems. The programme, spearheaded by the Water and Sanitation Unit, seeks to draw from the expertise of retired engineers and technologists with Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, and Chemical Engineering skills, the municipality said in a statement. The retired professionals…

Despite sanctions, Russia will continue to supply grains and food products to continent ON JULY 27-28 , St Petersburg will host the second Russia-Africa Summit and Russia-Africa Economic and Humanitarian Forum. On the eve of these large-scale representative events which will bring together heads of state and government, entrepreneurs, academia and public figures, I would like to share my vision of the development of Russia-Africa relations with the readers of the leading media on the African continent, outlining priority cooperation areas for the coming decades of the 21st century. The partnership relations between our country and Africa have strong, deep roots and have always been distinguished by stability, trust and goodwill. We have consistently supported African peoples in their struggle for liberation from colonial oppression. We have provided assistance…

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in hospital after being fitted with a pacemaker yesterday as tens of thousands of people converged on Jerusalem to protest a planned overhaul of the Supreme Court being debated in parliament. With Israel embroiled in its most serious domestic political crisis in decades, the 73-year-old leader was rushed to Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv on Saturday after a heart monitor implanted a week earlier in what was described as a dehydration episode detected a “temporary arrhythmia”, his doctors said. The pacemaker procedure went smoothly and Netanyahu was expected to be discharged later yesterday, his office said, however Israeli media reported he may stay an extra night in the hospital. A medical source familiar with the case said doctors were recommending Netanyahu stay another…

Illegal flows of migrants are damaging all countries across the Mediterranean, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said yesterday, as she called on nations to fight together against human traffickers. In contrast with her past hard-line rhetoric, Meloni told an international conference in Rome that her government was open to taking in more people through legal routes as “Europe and Italy needed immigration.” Earlier this month, Italy pledged to issue 452 000 new work visas for non-EU nationals from 2023 to 2025, increasing the number of permits available each year to a high of 165 000 in 2025. In 2019, before Covid-19 struck, Italy issued just 30 850 visas. The conference is hosting representatives from countries including Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, Cyprus, Libya and the EU. Arrivals in Italy are…

Khartoum: At least 16 civilians were killed in clashes between the Sudanese Army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Nyala, the capital of Sudan’s South Darfur state, the Darfur Bar Association said. The organisation said at the weekend: “The battles in Nyala are taking place on the heads of citizens amid random shootings on streets and houses as well as killings with sniper bullets.” Sudan has been witnessing deadly clashes between the Sudanese Army and the RSF in Khartoum and other areas since April 15, resulting in more than 3 000 deaths and more than 6 000 injuries, according to the Sudanese Health Ministry. | Xinhua…

Kabul: The death toll from overnight flash floods caused by torrential rain in central Afghanistan has risen to 26, with more than 40 people missing, officials said yesterday. Shafiullah Rahimi, spokesperson for the State Ministry for Disaster Management, said 31 people had been killed nationwide in floods since Friday and extensive damage had been caused to property and farmland. Officials said urgent aid was being rushed to the main disaster zone in the Jalrez district of Maidan Wardak province. As many as 604 houses had been damaged and hundreds of hectares of agricultural land and orchards destroyed in Jalrez since Friday. | AFP…

South African amateur Christo Lamprecht ended a rollercoaster Open Championship on 11-over par yesterday, 16 shots behind where he was after a brilliant opening 66 but all the better for the experience. The towering 22-year-old was joint leader of the tournament after plundering seven birdies at a sun-kissed Hoylake on Thursday before rounds of 79, 76 and 74 sent him tumbling down the field. He will have the consolation of winning the silver medal as leading amateur, as well as learning valuable lessons. “It’s been a week with every bit of emotion felt, kind of coming off a high on Thursday and just not having it the last three days,” Lamprecht told reporters. “I felt like kind of in control of the golf ball not nearly as well as I…

Former Maritzburg United defender Bradley Cross led the way as Golden Arrows announced the signing of five new players ahead of the 2023/24 season. The 22-year-old utility-player joins Abafana Bes’Thende following the Team of Choice’s relegation to the Motsepe Foundation Championship. Cross, who also played for Newcastle United before his return to South Africa before the start of the previous season, spent four years in Europe and was assessed by SuperSport United and Kaizer Chiefs before joining Maritzburg. The Durban-based outfit also bolstered their offensive line with the acquisition of winger Tebogo Motloung from Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila and striker Lungelo Nguse from the University of Pretoria. The midfield duo of Olwethu Ncube and Angelo van Rooyen from Hungry Lions completed the list as Arrows made huge strides towards bettering their…

CRITICISM of Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan by secretary-general Fikile Mbalula over dereliction of duty regarding the country’s rail transport system did “not amount to a call for his removal”, the ANC said. Mbalula, speaking at the ANC Women’s League conference on Saturday at Nasrec, issued a stern warning to Gordhan to fix Transnet to reduce the number of heavy trucks on the roads, suggesting that failure to do so may see him being removed from his position. Poor maintenance and a shortage of locomotives have seen Transnet cost the country’s bulk commodity producers billions of rand in revenue as they moved away from rail to trucks to transport their goods. “I am going to say to Pravin Gordhan, I was with him there, I was also a minister of…

THE burning of trucks in KwaZulu-Natal and other provinces was well organised, and orchestrated by “kingpins”, who had enough time to devise their plans, yet the crime intelligence unit failed to uncover these plans in time. This is similar to what happened during the 2021 July unrest, where the crime intelligence unit was caught asleep at the wheel. This is tantamount to economic sabotage. The government must shoulder the blame for the burning of trucks. For the government to cry crocodile tears does not assist anyone, if, at the same time, it is failing to detect this type of disaster before it happens. Unfortunately, it seems that people are emulating an old tactic by the ANC to communicate its frustrations through the burning of infrastructure. The IFP founder and IFP…

Police in the Eastern Cape have confirmed that the office of the director of public prosecutions will be presenting post-mortem results for the 21 young people who died at the Enyobeni tavern in the East London Regional Court in August. The incident last June claimed the lives of the 21 young people, believed to have gone to the tavern as part of their pens-down post-exams celebrations. After the docket was reviewed by the National Prosecuting Authority, it was decided that an inquest hearing should be held, starting next month. “The office of the director of public prosecutions (DPP) is currently preparing subpoenas for all witnesses to attend the hearing on August 30 in the East London Regional Court,” said police spokesperson Brigadier Thembinkosi Kinana. Kinana added that all the relevant…

A man aged 84, who had divorced his wife 31 years ago, turned to the courts to have his maintenance payment to his former wife reduced, claiming he could not afford it any longer. But it emerged in the Limpopo High Court, sitting in Polokwane, that the man had fixed assets worth several million rand but lived on a very small pension because he feared running out of money. The court ordered that he pay the amount he had undertaken to pay all those years ago (which had increased in accordance with inflation). The judge pointed out that he had “more than enough to sustain him and his (equally elderly) wife up until their deaths.” The former couple got divorced in September 1992 and they entered into a settlement…

The South African Council of Geoscience confirmed at the weekend that an earthquake had been registered near Harmony Doornkop Gold Mine on Gauteng’s West Rand on Saturday night. According to the council, the seismic event occurred at about 6.46pm. “The earthquake registered a magnitude of approximately 2.98 as registered by the South African National Seismograph Network,” the council wrote in a statement. It called for the public to register their experiences using their online survey. Meanwhile, Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi also confirmed the occurrence of the earthquake. “We are awaiting official confirmation of the #Tremor around Roodepoort/Kagiso/Soweto area. Our emergency teams are combing the area,” he wrote on Twitter. It was unclear yesterday if any damage was caused to properties or infrastructure. Rietvlei resident Tshepiso Ramollo said she felt the…

The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in KwaZulu-Natal has said the trial of Ndumiseni Khetha Zuma, who stands accused of torching Brookside Mall in Pietermaritzburg during the July 2021 unrest, will begin today. NPA KZN spokesperson Natasha Ramkisson-Kara said Zuma’s trial had been set down from July 24-28, in the Pietermaritzburg Regional Court. “Zuma faces charges of incitement to commit public violence and incitement to commit arson, in relation to the burning of the Brookside Mall in July 2021 during the looting and civil unrest that took place in parts of KwaZulu-Natal,” she said. The 35-year-old remains in custody following an unsuccessful bail application. | Karen Singh…

ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula’s call for Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan to speedily attend to Transnet rail issues may be seen as necessary considering the desperate situation, but not legitimate, especially coming from him. No wonder the ANC moved fast in doing damage control following Mbalula’s remarks that Gordhan better “move fast or we will move you”. Mbalula’s well-documented failures when he was transport minister make him the last person to point fingers even when Gordhan’s obvious shortcomings appear to be more severe. South Africans need no reminder that Gordhan’s stint, especially when it comes to the country’s state-owned enterprises such as SAA, Eskom, Denel and Transnet, is one to forget. He, like Mbalula at Prasa, presided over the near collapse of these companies, which were meant to help grow…

Gender trumped ethnicity for a group of furious Indian mothers who torched the homes of two men from their own community who were accused of abusing women in a video that sparked outrage. At least 120 people have been killed during months of ethnic conflict between the predominantly Hindu Meitei majority and the mainly Christian Kuki in India’s troubled northeastern state of Manipur. The women from the Meitei community decided to show their anger after a humiliating video surfaced on Wednesday, which reportedly shows two Kuki women being forced to strip naked and then jeered at and harassed by Meitei men in May. Police arrested four suspects on Thursday but, on the same day, a powerful group of Meitei women known as the “Meira Paibis”, or the Mothers of Manipur,…

SAN FRANCISCO: Elon Musk said yesterday he was looking to change Twitter’s logo, tweeting: “And soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds”. In a post on the site, the social media platform’s billionaire owner added: “If a good enough X logo is posted tonight, we’ll make (it) go live worldwide tomorrow.” Musk posted an image of a flickering “X”, and later in a Twitter Spaces audio chat replied “Yes” when asked if the Twitter logo will change, adding that “it should have been done a long time ago”. Under Musk’s tumultuous tenure since he bought Twitter in October, the company has changed its business name to X Corp, reflecting the billionaire’s vision to create a “super app” like China’s WeChat. Twitter’s website says…

Athens: The collapse of a bridge undergoing works in western Greece yesterday killed one person and wounded eight others, Greek authorities said. The fire department said it was called out when part of a bridge collapsed in Patras, in the Proastio area on the road to the capital Athens. Eight injured had been sent to hospitals and one person was killed in the collapse, the fire department said. Some 35 firefighters and 12 vehicles were dispatched to the scene, as well as drones and special rescue vehicles. The fire department said traffic had been closed on the bridge since July 20 “due to demolition work for reconstruction”. | AFP…

Although their fate is not in their own hands when it comes to winning the Rugby Championship this year, the Springboks will still go all out against Argentina on Saturday in the final match of the truncated competition. While South Africa needs Australia to do the almost impossible and beat New Zealand in their clash for them to have a shot at the crown, the title won’t be the sole focus for Bok coach Jacques Nienaber’s side at Ellis Park (kick-off 5.05pm). They will rather set their sights on delivering an improved performance in their third match of the season and burying the ghosts they chased in the Test against the All Blacks in New Zealand. While the Springboks still have an outside chance of clinching the trophy, Nienaber and…

Australia have retained the Ashes after the fourth Test against England ended in a rain-affected draw, with bad weather at Old Trafford washing out yesterday final day. The result ensured Australia, as the holders, kept the Ashes at 2-1 up with one match left in the series - regardless of the result of this week’s fifth Test at The Oval. Heavy overnight rain left the outfield sodden and meant play was unable to start as scheduled in Manchester. Despite the draw, Australia will still have to avoid defeat at The Oval if they are to secure their first Ashes series win in England since 2001. “The group should be pretty proud,” Australia captain Pat Cummins said. “Our preference is to come over here and win the Ashes, but it’s nice…

IT was more with patriotic hope than with real expectation that I woke up to watch Banyana Banyana take on Sweden yesterday morning. After all, what chance did South Africa have of beating the third best team in the world in their opening match of the Women’s World Cup? Slim to none, if you asked me ... and slim had not made the trip ... But we South African sports fans are suckers for punishment. We believe in our teams no matter how often they break our hearts. We expect them to do the impossible even though they’ve not given us reason to. We are especially hopeful when our country is involved in global events, our lack of pedigree or past poor showings notwithstanding. So I braved the winter cold…

France's hopes of a winning start to their Women's World Cup campaign were thwarted by a hardworking Jamaican side in a 0-0 draw in the opening Group F clash at Sydney Football Stadium yesterday. The fifth-ranked French, semi-finalists at last year's Euros, were unable to get their game going as the Jamaicans hassled and harried them throughout the 90 minutes to earn their first World Cup point after three losses on their 2019 debut. Forward Kadidiatou Diani almost clinched the winner for France in the 90th minute but her powerful header hit the bar then the post to the delight of the crowd of nearly 40 000, who had embraced the 43rd-ranked underdogs. "It was a difficult first half, we came up against a group of really athletic women," France…

Minister of Electricity Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa remains deeply concerned about the prolonged delays to return the 920MW Unit 1 at Koeberg Nuclear power station due to inexplicable challenges on the back of deteriorating electricity generation capacity. A frustrated Ramokgopa yesterday said he visited Koerberg on Thursday to get the update on the state of affairs at Africa’s only nuclear power station, and he was not impressed at all. In December 2022, Eskom belatedly took off-line Unit 1 Koeberg for at least six months to replace three steam generators in a bid to extend the life of the power station for an additional 20 years at an estimated cost of R20 billion. Unit 2 which continues to operate safely while Unit 1 is in this extended outage, will undergo a similar…

ECONOMISTS and civil society groups have agreed with the assertion that consumers are currently struggling with their finances more than they did amid the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, due to high inflation, rising interest rates, rising fuel costs and constant load shedding. The Altron FinTech Household Resilience Index (AFHRI), which was recently released, reported that South African households were worse off in first quarter of this year compared with the same period in 2020. The report indicated that during the first quarter of this year household financial resilience declined by 2.4%, compared with the fourth quarter of last year, and by 1.8% year-on-year. The director of the Social Policy Initiative (SPI), Isobel Frye, agreed consumers were struggling more this year. “One of the major issues is the challenges that…

Opposition parties have welcomed the arrest of eight VIP Protection Services officers for the alleged assault of three people on the N1 highway in Joburg earlier this month. The officers, who were attached to Deputy President Paul Mashatile’s security detail, were caught on video, filmed by a passing motorist, allegedly assaulting the unarmed victims and then fleeing the scene. The arrests were confirmed by Independent Police Investigative Directorate spokesperson Robbie Raburabu yesterday. “They have been arrested and are already at the Sandton police station. They will face charges of assault, malicious damage to property and pointing of a firearm,” he explained yesterday. The arrest and much-anticipated court appearance of the officers follow a huge public outcry after the video of the incident went viral on social media. The SAPS had…

A WILD animal – believed to be a lioness – is on the loose in the southern outskirts of Berlin, according to Sky News, with police warning people to stay indoors and bring in pets. Reports have come in of the lioness chasing, hunting down then eating a wild boar. Hunters, vets and helicopters with thermal cameras are involved in a search. No zoos or circuses have reported an animal missing, so it’s not clear where it came from. At the time of writing, the lioness had not been found, let alone captured. However, it seems she’s not one of the rugby lionesses. All members of the England Lionesses women’s rugby team are in place on their current overseas tour. It’s a real, live lioness the German police are searching…

EACH July 18 we are exhorted to reflect upon the sentiments and role of Nelson Mandela. However, reality and research point to a fundamental disconnect between the revered words of his autobiography and his endorsement of the actual designs of the ANC. To illustrate this, consider the following three statements by Mandela: “I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination.” – Rivonia Trial, 1964. “Today we celebrate not the victory of a party, but a victory for all the people of South Africa.” – May 10, 1994, inaugural address. “Never again shall it be that this land will experience the oppression of one by another.” – May 10, 1994, inaugural address. None of those noble declarations has been realised. Indeed regardless of Mandela’s rhetoric,…

An undocumented Lesotho national has been handed a 10-year jail sentence for stealing 159 pure-bred merino sheep from a farm in Cathcart, in the Easten Cape. The Cathcart Regional Court sentenced Lesotho national Teboho Letsie, 56, to 10 years’ direct imprisonment after convicting him on a charge of stock theft. Letsie, a resident of the district of Cathcart, pleaded guilty to the offence. In his guilty plea explanation, Letsie said that on April 7, 2022, he left his home for the farm owned by Duncan Currie, and upon his arrival at about 6pm, he stayed on the mountain waiting for it to get dark. “When the farmhouse lights went off, he went down the mountain to the kraal where the sheep were kept and drove them out, cutting at…

Minister of Defence and Military Veterans Thandi Modise has revealed the Russian vessel that docked in Simon’s Town had delivered equipment that had been ordered by the SANDF before the Covid-19 pandemic. Modise said the equipment was ordered during the 2018/19 financial year, but it could not be delivered because of the outbreak of the pandemic. She again denied allegations made by US ambassador to South Africa Reuben Brigety that the ship loaded weapons that were sent to Russia. She said President Cyril Ramaphosa has set up an investigation, chaired by retired Judge Phineas Mojapelo, and parties who want to make submissions can approach the inquiry. Modise, was replying to written parliamentary questions from DA MPs Kobus Marais and Dianne Kohler Barnard and IFP MP Inkosi Russel Cebekhulu, on the…

The movie Valley of A Thousand Hills, the work of husband and wife team Philani and Bonie Sithebe from Durban, scooped eight awards at the 10th annual Simon “Mabhunu” Sabela KZN Film and Television Awards on Saturday. This year marked the 10th anniversary of the Simon Sabela Awards, an initiative of the Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs, which is implemented by the KwaZulu-Natal Film Commission. It recognises outstanding achievement within the South African Film and Television industry, with a special focus on KwaZulu-Natal. Valley of A Thousand Hills, filmed in the area where the film takes it name from in KwaZulu-Natal, stars Sibongokuhle Nkosi and Mandisa Vilakazi and is on Netflix. It first aired last year. Sithebe , who runs Durban Motion Pictures with her husband, walked…

Locals and tourists fled parts of the Greek island of Rhodes yesterday, as firefighters battled a blaze that had sparked the country’s largest-ever fire evacuation. Firefighters were bracing for high winds that had been forecast for the afternoon and that could hamper their efforts. The island of Rhodes is one of Greece’s most popular tourist destinations, particularly with British, German and French tourists – many of whom are now being rapidly moved out of the path of the flames. As Greece has been battered by an extended spell of extreme heat, flames have burned for nearly a week on the island. Temperatures, which reached 45°C in central Greece yesterday, were expected to dip today before the mercury rises again for another four-day heatwave. “This is the biggest fire evacuation ever…

Russia’s latest strike on Odesa yesterday killed two people and severely damaged a historic Orthodox cathedral, drawing a vow of retaliation from Ukraine’s leader. The 18th-century Transfiguration Cathedral, the biggest Orthodox church in Odesa, lies within the Unesco-protected historic city centre. The strike on the port city, which Russia has pounded since quitting the Black Sea grain deal last week, came just hours before Russian President Vladimir Putin met his Belarus counterpart for talks. Putin claimed Kyiv’s counteroffensive had “failed” as he met his closest ally, Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko, in Saint Petersburg, the first time since Minsk helped end a revolt by Russian Wagner fighters. On the Black Sea in Odesa, locals looked in disbelief as the Transfiguration Cathedral – originally built in 1794 under imperial Russian rule…

YAOUNDE: A four-storey building collapsed in Cameroon’s commercial capital Douala, killing at least 12 people and injuring others, the regional governor said yesterday. The building, located in the city’s eastern Ange Raphael suburb, caved in around midnight. “Twelve died and the others are in hospital for medical attention,” the governor of the surrounding Littoral region told journalists at the site, saying 31 people in total were affected. The situation was under control and rescue teams were making sure no one remained under the rubble, he said. Although the cause of the collapse was unclear, local residents said it looked deteriorated with exposed and worn out rods. | Reuters…

PHNOM PENH: The party of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen declared a landslide victory in a general election yesterday, a vote that critics widely dismissed as a sham aimed at cementing the party’s rule before an expected transfer of power to his eldest son. The contest was effectively a one-horse race, with Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), a political behemoth with a vast war chest. Polls closed with a turnout of 84% according to the election committee, with 8.1 million people voting in a contest between CPP and 17 mostly obscure parties, none of which won seats in 2018 elections. The only opponent with any real clout was disqualified. | Reuters…

Dominant Formula One leader Max Verstappen ran away with the Hungarian Grand Prix by a mighty margin yesterday as Red Bull made history with a record 12th victory in a row. McLaren’s Lando Norris was runner-up for the second straight race but 33.731 seconds behind at the chequered flag on a hot afternoon at the Hungaroring. Verstappen’s teammate and closest title rival Sergio Perez had to settle for third after starting ninth and chasing Norris in the closing stages before the Briton built up more of a buffer. The 44th career win was a ninth in 11 races so far this season for Verstappen, and seventh in a row, stretching his lead over Perez to 110 points with the double world champion also taking the fastest lap. “What an unbelievable…