S. Africa widens search for Zuma allies to India, China

Mozambique rains kill 17

JOHANNESBURG, Feb 19, (Agencies): South Africa has widened a corruption probe into allies of expresident Jacob Zuma to other countries including India, China and Dubai, the police minister said Sunday.

Fikile Mbalula made the announcement days after South Africa issued an arrest warrant for one of the brothers of the Gupta business family, close associates of scandal-plagued Zuma who was forced from power on Wednesday.

Mbalula told public broadcaster SABC that Ajay Gupta and another four people who are being sought in connection with the case were all out of the country.

While there was no indication that they fled the country fearing arrest, Mbalula vowed that they will “be followed up” through Interpol with the possibility of extradition to face trial in South Africa. He said two of the suspects were of Indian descent and one other was Chinese. All are thought to be in India, China or Dubai.

“We operate through Interpol, we operate through bilateral (means), if you ever resist there will be extradition. All means necessary will be employed to ensure these people are brought to book,” said Mbalula.

Zuma

Rains kill 17 in Mozambique:

Mozambican media say at least 17 people died when heavy rains triggered the partial collapse of a huge mound of garbage in Mozambique’s capital, Maputo.

Radio Mocambique reported Monday that rescue workers believe more bodies could be buried in the debris at the Hulene garbage dump.

It said five houses were buried in the disaster and that some families in the area have fled their homes for fear of another collapse.

Tsvangirai

hailed:

Zimbabwe’s president on Sunday praised opposition icon Morgan Tsvangirai who died last week as an outstanding political figure who had endured political hardship and deserved his place in the country’s history.

Tsvangirai, the strongest and fiercest opponent ever to Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party’s four decades of rule, died on Wednesday, aged 65 at a hospital in South Africa where he had been undergoing treatment for colon cancer.

Sudan frees activists:

Sudan on Sunday released dozens of opposition activists arrested last month in a crackdown on protests against rising food prices, an AFP correspondent reported.

The release of detainees, including some top opposition figures, came three days after the US embassy voiced concern over the arrests and said many of them were being held in “inhumane conditions”.

Those released emerged from Kobar prison in northern Khartoum shouting “Freedom! Justice! Revolution!” the correspondent reported, after authorities had invited journalists to the scene.

Gambia stops death penalty:

Gambian President Adama Barrow announced on Sunday a suspension of the death penalty in his country, in a break from the former regime of the dictator Yahya Jammeh.

Barrow, a onetime security guard in London who was elected president in December 2016, signed a UN treaty on the abolition of capital punishment last year.

“I will use this opportunity to declare a moratorium on the use of the death penalty in the Gambia, as a first step towards abolition,” Barrow said in a speech marking the 53rd anniversary of independence from Britain.

Jammeh ruled Gambia, a small English-speaking country surrounded by Senegal and a narrow Atlantic coastline, with an iron fist for 22 years.