North Korea may have fired two ground-to-air missiles near its border with China on Wednesday, a Japanese news report said, citing unidentified sources. Pyongyang was believed to have launched the missiles ”in the direction towards China,” Kyodo News agency reported, citing an Asian security source.
Police discovered a weapons cache in eastern Zimbabwe and linked it to a little-known group that state radio identified on Wednesday as the military wing of the main opposition party. A spokesperson for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) rejected allegations it was linked to an armed group.
"The announcement on February 27 by the chairperson of the portfolio committee on justice and constitutional development, Fatima Chohan, that the deadline for submissions on the draft Superior Courts Bill and the draft Constitution Fourteenth Amendment Bill is being extended to May 15 provides some much-needed breathing space," writes Theunis Roux.
HIV/Aids and human rights activists have called for commercial sex work to be decriminalised as a means of tackling the spread of HIV/Aids.
The city of Varanasi, reeling from a deadly triple bomb attack, is India’s holiest Hindu site where pilgrims flock to wash away their sins in the sacred River Ganges and to die. Millions of devotees each year visit the ancient temple-studded town targeted late on Tuesday by what police called ”suspected terrorists” — a usual official term for Islamic extremists.
Charges of drunken driving against Springbok flyhalf André Pretorius were withdrawn in the Randburg Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday. Pretorius’s lawyer, Carrol Von Molendorff, said the State had most likely dropped the charges because of lack of evidence.
The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) was slightly weaker just before noon on Wednesday after a choppy morning session. Dealers attributed the bourse’s softer tone to weaker European markets and lower precious-metals prices. By 11.56am, the all-share and all-share industrial indices shed 0,3% and 0,37% respectively.
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The woman accusing Jacob Zuma of raping her told the Johannesburg High Court on Wednesday that she became ”shit scared” when she realised what was about to happen. Zuma’s lawyer Kemp J Kemp had asked her why she did not open her eyes to see what he was doing when he came into her guest room and started massaging her.
The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) has ”never deviated” from the ruling party’s policy on violence against women and on Wednesday rejected a warning not to do so. The ANC’s national working committee had warned the youth league and ”other Zuma sympathisers” not to defy ANC policy.
Angola is to draw up measures designed to prevent an outbreak of bird flu, which has been officially declared in three African nations, according to a parliamentary decree. A committee of experts from the military, health sectors and government organisations has been set up to chart a programme of action.