Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged number three in al-Qaeda, confessed to planning the attacks on New York and Washington on September 11 2001, in front of the secret military tribunals being held for the top detainees in Guantánamo, the Pentagon said on Wednesday night.
When United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon took office in January, he made a public commitment to revamp the UN secretariat, inculcate high ethical standards and make his new administration fully transparent and accountable. "My watchword will be meritocracy, with due regard for gender balance and geographical representation," he pledged, speaking of impending appointments of senior officials.
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The International Cricket Council (ICC) has teamed up with UNAids, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) and the Caribbean Broadcast Media Partnership at the Cricket World Cup 2007 to highlight the situation of children and young people living with and affected by HIV/Aids.
The papers are plump with stories on the continuing contest between the president and the popular figure he once chose as his number two. Some articles accuse the country’s boss of abusing state organs to stop this man from filling his shoes. Column inches debate whether the ”victim” has made irresponsible utterances and assess his chances against a protégé of the president.
We have a difficult past as South Africans. We’ve had conflict for 360 years, possibly more, and this was so because colonialism had to find its full sway and that took easily 200 years, followed by another 150 years of conflict, essentially over gold and diamonds. And in that process many people’s lives were trampled upon and we ended up with what I will call a "last fling", writes Dikgang Moseneke.
African leaders, for so long reluctant to speak out about the crisis in Zimbabwe, are finally running out of patience with President Robert Mugabe. Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, suffered a suspected skull fracture, doctors reported on Wednesday after what lawyers and other activists said were savage beatings while in police custody.
Three media institutions expressed concern on Wednesday that Parliament’s home affairs committee chairperson Patrick Chauke might fast-track the draft Films and Publications Amendment Bill. The South African National Editors’ Forum, the South African chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa and the Freedom of Expression Institute issued a joint statement in this regard.
Furniture shops cannot keep silent about hidden costs when advertising bargains, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said on Wednesday. The authority has ruled against a Furniture City advertisement that did not reflect hidden costs — such as insurance and delivery charges — in its advertised prices.
Muslims in South Africa could be incorrectly suspected of being involved terrorism due to comments by intelligence officials that the country has become a haven for terrorists, Muslim organisations warned on Wednesday.
As the African National Congress (ANC) and General Council of the Bar in South Africa expressed concern at the situation in Zimbabwe on Wednesday, the Democratic Alliance said the government’s response to the situation is shameful. ”The ANC is concerned about the current situation in Zimbabwe,” party spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama said.