Mugabe to form government without opposition
Patrick Chinamasa, spokesman for Mugabe’s ZANU-PF Party, said the government should be sworn in on February 13 as proposed by regional leaders earlier in the day. He said his party would give the opposition a few more days to decide whether to join a unity government.
A government without the opposition would likely be condemned by the West — the EU on Monday added 62 individuals and companies to a blacklist freezing assets and barring travel to those who funnel money to prop up Mugabe and his clique.
The country is also dealing with a cholera outbreak. The death toll is approaching 3,000 and within reach of the worst case scenario of 60,000 cases, the World Health Organisation said yesterday.
The outbreak has killed 2,971 people and infected 56,123 others, according to the latest figures released yesterday by the WHO.
Updike dies
USA: John Updike, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, prolific man of letters and erudite chronicler of sex, divorce and other adventures in the postwar prime of the American empire — died yesterday at age 76.
Updike, above, a resident of Beverly Farms, Massachusetts, died of lung cancer, according to his publisher, Alfred A Knopf.
A literary writer who frequently appeared on best seller lists, the tall, hawk-nosed Updike wrote novels, short stories, poems, criticism, the memoir Self-Consciousness and even a famous essay on baseball great Ted Williams.
An old-fashioned believer in hard work, he published more than 50 books since the 1950s. Updike won virtually every literary prize, including two Pulitzers, for Rabbit is Rich and Rabbit at Rest, and two National Book Awards.
Trapped civilians
SRI LANKA: At least 300 civilians were wounded and scores feared killed by Sri Lankan army artillery shells fired into a designated “safe zone” for ethnic Tamils trapped by fighting between the military and Tamil rebels, a health official said yesterday.
The shelling comes as the rebels continue to fall back, pulling their forces and civilians into the last remaining areas of dense jungle still under their control and leaving behind ghost towns.
The Red Cross said yesterday that “hundreds” of people have been killed in Sri Lanka’s northern Vanni region.
“People are being caught in the crossfire, hospitals and ambulances have been hit by shelling and several aid workers have been injured while evacuating the wounded,” said Jacques de Maio, the International Committee of the Red Cross’ head of operations for South Asia .
The Red Cross estimated 250,000 people were trapped by fighting and appealed to both sides to allow the safe movement of civilians.
Leaders chosen
ICELAND: Iceland’s centre-left Social Democratic Alliance Party was chosen yesterday to form a new government with the Left-Green movement following the collapse of the conservative government. President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson made the decision after Prime Minister Geir Haarde, who had led the island nation since 2006, was toppled Monday by angry protests over the country’s slide into economic ruin.
Kray auction
BRITAIN: Personal possessions of gangland criminals the Kray twins have fetched more than £100,000 (€107,000) at auction. The pair, who were jailed for life for the murder of Jack McVitie in 1969, were notorious in east London in the 1950s and 60s.
They went on to develop a cult-like status among the public and celebrities alike.
Lots included photographs signed by actress Patsy Kensit, TV presenter Fern Britton and Barbara Streisand. But the biggest sales last night were two pairs of cufflinks belonging to Ronnie, fetching nearly £15,000.
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