Chamisa rejects ruling
HARARE: Movement for Democratic Change Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa says he respectfully rejects the court ruling upholding president-elect Emmerson Mnangagwa’s narrow election win and calls today’s inauguration “false.”
He spoke a day after the Constitutional Court unanimously rejected opposition claims of voterigging and said it did not bring “sufficient and credible evidence”.
Chamisa now says “we have the right to peaceful protest” and that other routes will be pursued. He alleges “a new persecution”. Mnangagwa, shortly after the ruling, said on Twitter to Chamisa, “my door is open and my arms are outstretched”.
Chemical attack
MOSCOW: Russia’s defence ministry says militants in a rebelcontrolled province of Syria are preparing a chemical weapons attack.
Yesterday it quoted unnamed sources saying the Levant Liberation Committee is preparing an attack against civilians in the northwestern Idlib province to blame it on the Syrian government. The military cited sources alleging that several containers with chlorine had been taken to a nearby village.
The ministry also claimed a private British contactor was helping the rebels stage the attack.
Villagers flee lava flow
SYDNEY: An island volcano on the north coast of Papua New Guinea erupted early yesterday, forcing 2 000 villagers to flee lava flows, the National Disaster Centre said.
Manam Island, just 10km wide, is one of the Pacific nation’s most active volcanoes and home to roughly 9 000 people.
Three villages were directly in the path of the lava flow and residents had to be evacuated to safer ground, said Martin Mose, director of the PNG National Disaster Centre.
The Rabaul Volcano Observatory reported the eruption began at 6am local time.
Curt reply on curtsy
ZURICH: Austria’s foreign minister yesterday rejected criticism over her deep curtsy to Russian President Vladimir Putin at her wedding last week, saying her gesture was not an act of submission.
Karin Kneissl said such a curtsy was customary at the end of a dance, and Putin bowed to her first. Some commentators have accused her of a naive gesture that would hurt her country’s reputation.
Kneissl, 53, was appointed by the far-right Freedom Party which has a co-operation agreement with Putin’s United Russia Party.
Storm devastation
BRATISLAVA: People in Poland and Slovakia awoke to houses with their roofs torn off and blocked streets yesterday after a storm passed though overnight.
Southern and eastern Poland were especially hit, with local broadcasters showing massive clean-up efforts. No injuries or deaths have been reported.
Some 4 500 people were without power. In northern Poland, a mudslide blocked a regional train line, according to broadcaster TVP.
Amateur videos revealed flooded streets in the Slovakian town of Myjava on Friday.
Home abortion pill
LONDON: Women seeking to end early pregnancies in England will soon be allowed to take an abortion pill at home under a new government plan to take effect by the end of the year.
Women undergoing medical abortions up to the 10th week of a pregnancy must take two pills at a clinic 24 to 48 hours apart.
The new plan would allow them to take the second pill at home.
Supporters say this puts women at risk of having miscarriages travelling home from the clinic.
Donate your poop
BRUSSELS: Belgian scientists are looking for people to donate their faeces to help with research into illnesses ranging from bowel disorders and allergies to neurological diseases.
At Ghent University hospital, researchers are performing faecal microbiota transplants on patients.
They extract good microbiota, tiny organisms living in the colon, from donors and transfer it to sick patients in the hope of repopulating their guts.
Sources:ap/dpa/daily Mail/african News Agency(ana)/sputnik