News 09:00

BULLETIN 18 February 9 am 

Good morning. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# SANDF announces the names of the members killed in the DRC
# Four murder suspects are killed in a shootout with the police
# And, swimming: Erin Gallagher and Chad le Clos miss out in Doha

# The South African National Defence Force has announced the names of the soldiers who were killed in a mortar incident in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Captain Simon Bobe and Lance Corporal Irven Semono died when a mortar bomb landed inside one of the South African contingent’s military bases on Wednesday. Both soldiers were deployed with 2 South African Infantry Battalion. SANDF spokesperson, Selina Rawlins, says the three soldiers who were wounded are still in hospital in good condition.

# Four men suspected of being behind the murders of a 48-year-old woman and her 22-year-old daughter in Inanda, KwaZulu-Natal, on Friday were fatally wounded in a shootout with police yesterday. Police spokesperson, Robert Netshiunda, says they gathered intelligence about the suspects who were believed to be on their way to perform cleansing rituals at Mpophomeni:

# Western leaders have reacted with outrage to the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Some have directly put the blame on president Vladimir Putin after the 47-year-old activist passed away while serving a 30-year sentence in a penal colony north of the Arctic Circle on Friday. Navalny was one of Putin’s harshest critics. Reports say his supporters considered him Russia’s Nelson Mandela. According to prison authorities, Navalny fell ill while on a walk, while his family says he was in good health before his death. 

# Swimming: Erin Gallagher just fell short of a first World Championship medal in Doha last night, finishing fourth in the 50-metres butterfly final. She missed out on the bronze medal by just two hundredths of a second. Gallagher’s disappointment was shared by Chad le Clos, who finished fifth in the 100-metres butterfly final. Pieter Coetzé and Lara van Niekerk will, however, compete in the finals tonight – Coetzé in the 50-metres backstroke and Van Niekerk in the 50-metres breaststroke.

# And finally: The NSPCA is unequivocally opposing the hunting of animals for exhibition, entertainment or sport. It slams a Northern Cape private school’s promotion of a game and hunt auction, with the prize being the hunt of a lioness in Tosca valued at 40-thousand-rand. Under pressure from animal advocacy groups, the school has purportedly agreed to substitute the lioness with two buffalo. NSPCA spokesperson Jacques Peacock says this compromise fails to rectify the fundamental ethical issues:

Stay tuned for more news………….