South Africa has been disgraced by a wave of violence against foreigners that has left at least 50 dead, AP cited President Thabo Mbeki as saying Sunday.
In a 10-minute, prime time nationally televised address on the state broadcaster, Mbeki said South Africans’ heads were “bowed“ and called the violence an “absolute disgrace.“ “The shameful actions of a few have blemished the name of South Africa,“ he said. He said South Africans should remember their economy was built with the help of migrants from across the continent, and its neighbors had helped fight apartheid and some had died for their efforts.
“Never since the birth of our democracy, have we witnessed such callousness,“ he said in a national television broadcast.
Sadly, Africa Day, on Sunday, was being marked in South Africa “with our heads bowed“, the president said. “As part of the reflection that Africa Day requires of all of us, we must acknowledge the events of the past two weeks as an absolute disgrace.“
Mbeki added that the actions of few individuals do not reflect the values of the South African people who for decades have lived together with their fellow African brothers and sisters.
South Africans should remember that their struggle for liberation had always been both national and Pan-African, he urged.
Death Toll
Earlier Sunday, police raised from 42 to 50 the number of people killed in two weeks of anti-foreigner clashes. Thousands displaced by the violence coped with rain and cool temperatures.
A police spokesman also said Sunday that the army will continue supporting police trying to quell the violence. On Saturday, the army said one of its soldiers shot and killed a man who was attacking a woman in a slum that has seen attacks on foreigners.
“There’s no change at this stage until such time as we are satisfied peace is being restored,“ said Gauteng provincial police spokesman Govindsamy Mariemuthoo. He said few incidents and no deaths or injuries were reported overnight.
Thousands of foreigners remain in makeshift camps after being chased from their homes by stick- and knife-wielding mobs of South Africans who accuse immigrants of taking jobs and blame them for crime. A church service was held Sunday at one of the camps.
The violence has centered on squatter camps and notoriously bleak dormitories built during the apartheid era for single men who were allowed to work in the cities, but not to bring their families.

Criticism
Mbeki on Wednesday called in the army for the first time since the end of apartheid in 1994 to aid police. In his speech Sunday, he touched on criticism that the violence was fueled in part by frustration that his government has been slow to provide housing and jobs for the poor.
While he said his government would take such concerns seriously, “we’ll never accept violence and the destruction and looting ... as legitimate ways of addressing those concerns.“
Jacob Zuma, president of Mbeki’s African National Congress party and widely expected to succeed Mbeki as the nation’s president in elections next year, also condemned the violence.
In a speech commemorating the anniversary of the founding of African Union predecessor the Organization of African Unity, Zuma said, “We currently stand humiliated as a nation before the African continent and the world.“
“We humbly ask for Africa’s understanding,“ he said. “We undertake to do all in our power to ensure that South Africa does not become a haven for people who perpetrate hatred, tribalism and xenophobia.“
Earlier Sunday, Zuma had joined other ANC leaders on visits to hot spots, hoping their presence and words could help restore calm.
Protesters marched for peace Saturday in Johannesburg, the commercial capital where the violence began and where it has been most intense. Shocked South Africans also have donated food, clothing and other items to the displaced.

Tensions remained high in the region around Naples on Sunday after a night of clashes between police officers and protesters furious at plans by the Italian government to dump mountains of trash from the nearby city in their towns, AP said.
Police officers in riot gear watched but did not intervene when a protester threw what appeared to be a firebomb near the town of Chiaiano, a suburb of Naples. Demonstrators also hurled cans and other garbage at the police. A few hours later, officers chased protesters, who scattered and then regrouped.
The site near Chiaiano was one of 10 selected by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s new government to receive some of the tons of garbage that has piled up uncollected in Naples and surrounding areas.
The police and protesters clashed overnight after the authorities tried to move an empty bus the demonstrators had been using to block a road leading to a planned dump site.

Germany’s center-left Social Democrats were expected to nominate a challenger to conservative President Horst Koehler on Monday, setting the stage for a prolonged political standoff before next year’s general elections, according to AP.
Koehler last week said he would seek re-election when his first term ends in May 2009--about four months before parliamentary elections in which both halves of conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel’s governing left-right ``grand coalition’’ hope to end their bad-tempered alliance.
Koehler is a member of Merkel’s Christian Democrats. The Social Democrats, who make up the other half of Merkel’s coalition, have made clear they plan to nominate university professor Gesine Schwan, who narrowly lost to Koehler in 2004.
``I believe there will be wide support for Gesine Schwan’’ at a meeting Monday of party leaders, general secretary Hubertus Heil told ARD television.
For Schwan to win the Social Democrats would need vote support from the Left party--a group that includes ex-communists and opposes economic reform, and with which they have pledged not to form a national government.

An official said an air strike, possibly of US origin, has caused explosions in southern Somalia.
Buale town chairman Ibrahim Noleye said planes were heard flying followed by two loud explosions.
Nearby villages reported explosions between Buale and the town of Sakow, but it’s unclear if there were casualties.
Noleye said Monday it was unclear who launched the airstrike Sunday night, but only US aircraft have launched such strikes in Somalia in recent months.
The Somali government has no air force, and Ethiopian troops based in the country have not been reported to have conducted airstrikes.
Meanwhile, a Somali Islamist commander Sunday rejected a UN resolution that could see UN peacekeepers sent to the war-wracked African nation, calling for a “war“ against any such deployment, AFP reported.

Taiwan, in its highest contact with China since 1949, on Monday sent its ruling party chief to China to discuss President Ma Ting-jeou’s peace plans with Chinese President Hu Jintao, DPA said.
Wu Poh-hsiung, chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), led a 16-member delegation to China at the invitation of Hu Jintao, who issued the invitation in his capacity as secretary-general of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
In a major policy shift, Taiwan’s new President Ma has offered to seek peace with China and has asked Beijing to resume dialogue which began in 1993 but was halted by China in 1995 in retaliation against Taiwan’s seeking independence.
In China, Wu will also discuss Ma’s proposal for launching cross-strait weekend charter flights and opening the door to Chinese tourists, scheduled to start on July 4.
Speaking to reporters before his departure at Taoyuan International Airport outside Taipei, Wu said he carries heavy responsibilities and will try his best to achieve the goal.