@theclick

From the Cape Times: There has been no increase in reported cases of diarrhoea since rat-tailed maggots were first spotted in a Stellenbosch river at the beginning of the year, Andile Zimba, Cape Town’s acting director of health, said yesterday. In a presentation to the health portfolio committee, Zimba said the monthly statistics for diarrhoea had shown no increases, and there was no evidence that the maggots were responsible for the diarrhoea cases. Here.

Editorial from The New York Times: Last month Ollanta Humala, a military man whose family advocates the shooting of gays, Jews and Chilean investors, came in first in presidential elections. Since Mr. Humala did not get 50 percent, there will be a runoff on May 28. More bad news: the other candidate will be Alan García, a spectacularly irresponsible and corrupt president in the late 1980’s who wrecked Peru’s economy and presided over the commission of widespread war crimes. This sorry duo topped a field that included several excellent candidates. Here.

From the Mail & Guardian: In the latest case, a 41-year-old woman was tricked into having sex dozens of times with a medium who claimed to be the “Ninth Emperor of the Kingdom of God” and said she was possessed by evil spirits, newspapers reported on Wednesday. The 52-year-old medium said her domestic and financial problems would be solved with the sex sessions, which took place over seven months at a cost of 20-50 ringgit ($5,50 to $13,85) each, during which he moved into her house. He was eventually turfed out by the woman’s husband and has threatened to put a curse on the family. Here.

From Carlotta Gall, The New York Times: “The security situation is not good,” Governor Munib told General Eikenberry and a group of cabinet ministers at a meeting with tribal elders. “The number of Taliban and enemy is several times more than that of the police and Afghan National Army in this province,” he said. Uruzgan is not the only province teetering out of control. Helmand and Kandahar to the south have been increasingly overrun by militants this year, as large groups of Taliban are reportedly moving through the countryside, intimidating villagers, ambushing vehicles, and spoiling for a fight with coalition or Afghan forces. Insurgents also have the run of parts of Zabul, Ghazni and Paktika Provinces to the southeast, and have increased ambushes on the main Kabul-Kandahar highway. The Bush administration is alarmed, according to a Western intelligence official close to the administration. He said that while senior members of the administration consider the situation in Iraq to be not as bad as portrayed in the press, in Afghanistan the situation is worse than it has been generally portrayed. Here.

From The New York Times: In a statement, Representative Loretta Sanchez, a California Democrat on the subcommittee who opposes the laser’s development, thanked her Republican colleagues for agreeing to curb a program “with the potential to weaponize space.” Theresa Hitchens, director of the Center for Defense Information, a private group in Washington that tracks military programs, said the subcommittee’s action last week was a significant break with the administration. “It’s really the first time you’ve seen the Republican-led Congress acknowledge that these issues require public scrutiny,” she said. Here.

From the monthly report from International Crisis Group: Thirteen conflict situations around the world deteriorated in April 2006, according to the new issue of CrisisWatch,* released today. Tensions mounted over Iran’s nuclear program as Tehran defied the UN Security Council’s 28 April deadline to stop enriching uranium. An increasingly bitter rivalry between Hamas and Fatah cast a shadow over the Occupied Territories, while violence between Israelis and Palestinians increased. In Afghanistan, a Taliban “spring offensive” saw increased suicide attacks and bombings in the south and east. A series of bomb attacks in the Sinai peninsula rocked Egypt, which was also shaken by sectarian clashes in Alexandria. In Chad, rebels launched a major attack on the capital, N’Djamena, as the effects of the conflict in Darfur continued to spill over Sudan’s borders. A dramatic upsurge in violence in Sri Lanka prompted fears of a return to full-scale civil war. And a wave of separatist attacks in Kashmir marked the first major violence there since November 2005. The situation also deteriorated in Guinea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar/Burma, Pakistan, the Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste. Here.

From the Mail & Guardian: The Moskovski Komsomolets newspaper reported that Alkhanov had banned Kadyrov from bringing more than two of his private army with him into meetings. It reported that Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov had rung President Alu Alkhanov and given him 30 minutes to flee the presidential administration as his men wanted to storm it. Both sides called for reinforcements and there was further shooting before the situation was defused. Kadyrov later rang Alkhanov to apologise, the paper said. An aide to Kadyrov played down the clash, saying Kadyrov had attended the meeting. “It was simply a fight between two young sporty guys who don’t know how to use their energy and so had a fight,” he said. Here.