The United States should shut Guantánamo Bay and give detainees access to a fair trial or release them, a United Nations human rights watchdog said on Friday. The UN committee against torture voiced concern that detainees were being held at the camp for long periods without judicial scrutiny of the reasons for their detention,
Civilisation has a new enemy. He is a former coca grower called Evo Morales, who is currently the President of Bolivia. Recently he stood before the European Parliament to explain why he had sent troops to regain control of his country’s gas and oil fields. Bolivia’s resources, he says, have been ”looted by foreign companies”, and he is reclaiming them for the benefit of his people.
Somaliland’s president Dahir Riyale Kahin was on a working visit to Ethiopia this week when he celebrated the 15th anniversary of his country’s unilateral declaration of independence, four months after the fall of the dictator Siad Barre in January 1991.
Employers plan to take a hard line in talks set for Friday to bring an end to a nearly two-month long security industry strike. A joint statement by security sector employers said their continued participation in the talks was dependent on the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union agreeing to call off the strike and bring an end to violence associated with the dispute.
The jailed leader of São Paulo’s fiercest gang, which launched an offensive that has claimed more than 150 lives in less than a week, warned on Thursday that the violence would get worse. ”We are ready for much more, we have the means for much more,” Marcos Camacho said in an interview broadcast on local television Bandeirantes.
Governor of the South African Reserve Bank Tito Mboweni has been appointed to a ”committee of eminent persons” to review the finances of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the IMF announced in Washington on Thursday. The fund is facing a long-term shortfall in the financing of its administrative budget as the result of a decline in its level of lending.
Thousands joined marches throughout the country on Thursday to protest against job losses, but the impact of the one-day strike varied across the sectors of the economy. The strike, called by the Congress of South African Trade Unions, was felt hardest in the mining industry, followed by car manufacturers, retailers and the textile industry.
Songs, plays and heart-rending testimonies on Thursday marked the first anniversary of Zimbabwe’s demolitions blitz, which left hundreds of thousands homeless and destitute. Reti Chakadenga, a former house owner now living among the destitutes on the banks of a river on the outskirts of Harare, sniffed and battled to hold back tears.
Poor nations should highlight to the United Nations the problems that make them more vulnerable to HIV/Aids than developed countries, Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Thursday. She was speaking at the launch of the National Consultative Forum in Johannesburg.
A survey of sex workers has revealed that police officers are the main sexual and physical abusers of prostitutes, media reports said on Thursday. ”Our experience indicates that the highest levels of violence against sex workers come from the police and law-enforcement sectors,” said researcher Nicole Fick.