Kurdish rebels hit back at Turkey
Kurdish fighters were reported on May 19 to have struck back against Turkey's military assault on Kurds in Iraq. The Kurdish rebels struck in south-east Turkey, blocking a highway and attacking government buildings.
The Anatolia news agency reported that Kurdish guerillas killed one person and injured seven when they fired on a bus. The guerrillas blocked a road from the town of Diyarbakir to the Iraqi border and burned two oil tankers.
One hundred kilometres south of Diyarbakir, the rebels fired rockets at government buildings in Derik.
Turkey's military invaded northern Iraq on May 14. An estimated 25,000 to 50,000 troops crossed the border to pursue rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party.
In Brussels, the pro-Kurdish MED-TV said that Turkish troops had occupied the city of Dohuk, 50 km south of the border. MED-TV claimed that the rebels shot down two helicopter gunships on May 19, and said the guerrillas have killed 64 soldiers since the offensive began.
South Africa to privatise jails
The South African government is set to rlease tender documents asking companies to bid for the financing, construction and operation of seven prisons at an estimated cost of over 1.5 billion rand (around A$375 million), according to the London Financial Times.
The newspaper said the plan "could be the first of many infrastructure developments in other sectors, especially transport, to attract foreign bidders".
South Africa's prisons, already severely overcrowded when the ANC-led government took office, have had numbers of prisoners increase by about 10,000 a year since then.
The prison population is now 134,000. The existing 253 jails were intended to hold a maximum of 97,000 prisoners.
Correctional services minister Sipo Mzimela was quoted as saying that the seven new prisons would hold 10,000 people; in the longer term, 50,000 more prison spaces would be required.