Motorist pleads guilty to endangering lives of police officers at Otjiwarongo

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A 27-year-old motorist who was arrested Wednesday night after he endangered the lives of police officers who were chasing after him, pleaded guilty in court yesterday.

Mario Titus appeared before the Otjiwarongo Magistrate, Ruben Mutuku, and pleaded guilty to charges of defeating the course of justice; reckless and negligent driving and drunk driving.

Titus who conducted his own defence in court was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment or to pay a fine of N.dollars 4 000.

His driver’s licence was also suspended for a period of four months.

Titus was freed from police custody yesterday after he paid the imposed fine.

(NAMPA)

MS/PS

2 (AMASRA, 14 OCT, AFP) – The toll following a blast at a coal mine in northern Turkey rose to at least 40 killed, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said today.

‘We have counted 40 dead in total. Fifty-eight miners were able to save themselves,’ Soylu said in the wake, following one of Turkey’s deadliest industrial accidents in years yesterday.

A tearful Energy Minister Fatih Donmez said: ‘We are approaching the end of the rescue operation.’

AFP

3 (BEIJING, 14 OCT, AFP) – The Chinese Communist Party’s 20th Congress will end on 22 October, a spokesman said today at a press conference on the eve of the gathering, where President Xi Jinping is expected to secure a historic third term in power.

Around 2 300 delegates from every province in China will gather at the Great Hall of the People in the capital Beijing from tomorrow for the mostly closed-door conclave.

The CCP’s five-yearly talking shop will get under way at 10am (0200 GMT) with an opening ceremony, after which Xi is expected to deliver a lengthy speech that will give an assessment of the previous term as well as a roadmap for the next five years.

Congress spokesman Sun Yeli told reporters: ‘The preparations for the Congress have now been fully completed.’

Should everything go to plan, by the end of the meeting 69-year-old Xi will be reconfirmed as the party’s general secretary, cementing his position as China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong.

AFP

4 (TEHRAN, 14 OCT, AFP) – Iran has once again rejected allegations that it has supplied Russia with weapons ‘to be used in the war in Ukraine’, its foreign ministry said yesterday.

Kyiv and many of its Western allies have accused Moscow of using Iranian-made drones in attacks on Ukraine in recent weeks.

The topic is expected to be discussed by European Union foreign ministers in a meeting in Luxemburg on Monday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian ’emphasised that the Islamic republic of Iran has not and will not provide any weapon to be used in the war in Ukraine,’ the foreign ministry said in a statement.

‘We believe that the arming of each side of the crisis will prolong the war,’ the Iranian foreign minister said in a call with his Portuguese counterpart Joao Gomes Cravinho.

AFP

5 (LONDON, 15 OCT, AFP) – Britain’s new finance minister warned today of tax hikes to come as he admitted to ‘mistakes’ made by his short-lived predecessor in a disastrous budget.

Jeremy Hunt was making his first comments to media following his appointment as chancellor of the exchequer by Prime Minister Liz Truss, whose own future is in doubt mere weeks after she took office.

‘We will have some very difficult decisions ahead,’ Hunt told Sky News, warning that ‘all government departments’ face spending restraint.

‘And some taxes will not be cut as quickly as people want. Some taxes will go up,’ he added.

Tax cuts were the centrepiece of the budget announced by Hunt’s predecessor Kwasi Kwarteng on 23 September.

But they were financed through billions in more borrowing, causing panic on financial markets which has fed into higher costs for British households.

Truss fired Kwarteng yesterday and rowed back further on the planned tax cuts, but is facing threats of being toppled by senior Conservative MPs aghast at the party’s collapse in opinion polls since she replaced Boris Johnson on 06 September.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency