Brief News:
JOHANNESBURG (Dispatches) - South Africa’s ruling party decided on Tuesday to sack Jacob Zuma as head of state, two sources said, after marathon talks over the fate of a leader whose scandal-plagued years in power darkened and divided Nelson Mandela’s post-apartheid ‘Rainbow Nation’.
The decision by the African National Congress’s (ANC) national executive followed 13 hours of tense deliberations and one, short face-to-face exchange between Zuma and his presumed successor, deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa.
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MOSCOW (AP) — Human error may be to blame for the crash of a Russian plane that killed 71 people, Russian investigators said Tuesday, noting that the plane's pilots failed to turn on the heating unit for its measuring equipment, resulting in flawed speed data.
After studying An-148's flight data recorder, the Interstate Aviation Committee said that Sunday's crash near Moscow occurred after the pilots saw varying data on the plane's two air speed indicators.
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WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Ukrainian opposition leader Mikheil Saakashvili says he will continue to rally people against the nation's authorities from abroad, following his deportation from the country.
Saakashvili was deported from Ukraine to Poland on Monday after being detained by armed, masked men at a restaurant in Kiev and rushed to the airport.
At a news conference in Warsaw Tuesday he described the deportation as having taken place by force and against international laws.
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LONDON (AP) — The House of Commons said police investigated an incident at Britain's parliament in London.
Authorities referred all questions Tuesday to the Metropolitan Police, who did not have any immediate comment.
Britain's Press Association quoted an unnamed police office at Parliament describing the incident as being related to a suspicious package and saying that specialist officer are examining it.
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THE HAGUE (AFP) - A Dutch court on Tuesday upheld an appeal by anti-cigarette campaigners and barred the use of public spaces in cafes and bars reserved for smokers.
Despite a general ban on smoking in restaurants, pubs and bars introduced in 2008, more than 25 percent of small cafes in the Netherlands still have an enclosed inside corner where patrons can legally light up, under an exception to the legislation.
But the court in The Hague found that such spaces were "in conflict" with the World Health Organization's framework convention to regulate tobacco use, which the Netherlands has signed and which entered into force in 2005.
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LONDON (AP) — The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control says the number of measles cases across the continent tripled last year and is continuing to cause new outbreaks due to low immunization rates.
In an update published this month, the agency said more than 14,400 cases were reported by 30 countries last year — compared with about 4,600 cases the year before. European officials said the spike was due to epidemics in Romania, Italy, Greece and Germany.
The decision by the African National Congress’s (ANC) national executive followed 13 hours of tense deliberations and one, short face-to-face exchange between Zuma and his presumed successor, deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa.
********************
MOSCOW (AP) — Human error may be to blame for the crash of a Russian plane that killed 71 people, Russian investigators said Tuesday, noting that the plane's pilots failed to turn on the heating unit for its measuring equipment, resulting in flawed speed data.
After studying An-148's flight data recorder, the Interstate Aviation Committee said that Sunday's crash near Moscow occurred after the pilots saw varying data on the plane's two air speed indicators.
*********************
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Ukrainian opposition leader Mikheil Saakashvili says he will continue to rally people against the nation's authorities from abroad, following his deportation from the country.
Saakashvili was deported from Ukraine to Poland on Monday after being detained by armed, masked men at a restaurant in Kiev and rushed to the airport.
At a news conference in Warsaw Tuesday he described the deportation as having taken place by force and against international laws.
*******************************
LONDON (AP) — The House of Commons said police investigated an incident at Britain's parliament in London.
Authorities referred all questions Tuesday to the Metropolitan Police, who did not have any immediate comment.
Britain's Press Association quoted an unnamed police office at Parliament describing the incident as being related to a suspicious package and saying that specialist officer are examining it.
********************
THE HAGUE (AFP) - A Dutch court on Tuesday upheld an appeal by anti-cigarette campaigners and barred the use of public spaces in cafes and bars reserved for smokers.
Despite a general ban on smoking in restaurants, pubs and bars introduced in 2008, more than 25 percent of small cafes in the Netherlands still have an enclosed inside corner where patrons can legally light up, under an exception to the legislation.
But the court in The Hague found that such spaces were "in conflict" with the World Health Organization's framework convention to regulate tobacco use, which the Netherlands has signed and which entered into force in 2005.
*********************************
LONDON (AP) — The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control says the number of measles cases across the continent tripled last year and is continuing to cause new outbreaks due to low immunization rates.
In an update published this month, the agency said more than 14,400 cases were reported by 30 countries last year — compared with about 4,600 cases the year before. European officials said the spike was due to epidemics in Romania, Italy, Greece and Germany.