Africa Tutu, wife unhurt by house fire: ❑❑❑ Mandela’s lawyer Bizos dies: ❑❑❑ Sudan floods affect over half mln:

South African anti-apartheid veteran and Nobel laureate Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and his wife Leah have escaped unharmed from a fire in their cottage at a retirement complex outside Cape Town.

“The couple did not sustain any injuries and were in good spirits considering events that unfolded around daybreak today,” a statement from the Desmond and Leah Tutu Foundation said Wednesday.

A faulty gas heater is suspected of starting the fire, according to the statement. (AP)

Anti-apartheid crusader and Nelson Mandela’s personal lawyer George Bizos has died at 92, his family said Wednesday.

He died of natural causes at home, the family said.

Bizos, who came to South Africa as a 13-year-old fleeing the Nazi occupation of Greece, played a key role in the legal fight to end apartheid, the racist system used to oppress South Africa’s Black majority for decades.

Bizos represented Mandela from his treason trial in 1964 until the former South African president’s death in 2013. The lawyer is credited with getting Mandela to add the words “if needs be” to his speech from the dock in which he said he was prepared to die for his ideals. The addition was seen as an escape clause, avoiding any impression that Mandela was goading the court to impose the death penalty. (AP)

The UN on Wednesday revealed that the downpours currently hitting Sudan have caused damage to more than half million people so far.

In its report, the UN said that Sudan’s humanitarian fund has allocated about USD 3 million, including USD 1.5 million to enhance water, sanitation sector, supplies, health facilities and emergency shelters as well as funding for flood response.

The UN and non-governmental organizations, and the Sudanese army are currently helping thousands of persons in the affected areas, it added, noting that a number of planes carrying relief aid landed in Khartoum during the last days.

Humanitarian response plan to Sudan seeks to obtain USD 1.6 billion, of which less than 44 percent has been collected, it pointed out. (KUNA)