Former security policeman Gideon Nieuwoudt on Monday finished testifying at the re-opened Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings on the 1989 Motherwell car bombing of three policemen and an askari, SABC radio news reported. Nieuwoudt and two others are seeking amnesty for the killings in December 1989.
The South African Medicines Control Council has changed its mind on the use of nevirapine alone to reduce the risk of transmission of HIV from mother to child. It now recommends the medication being used as part of a combination of pharmaceuticals to prevent mothers infecting their children with HIV at birth.
The Eastern Cape department of health on Monday vowed to continue its crackdown on illegal circumcision schools after three officials were stoned and their vehicle damaged. Monday’s attack took place during a raid on illegal initiation schools in Luthuthu village, near Cradock, said a departmental spokesperson.
A five-year community participation project in Malawi has improved the quality of education in more than 2 000 of the country’s schools. The project aims to alleviate problems linked to a the glaring shortage of facilities, poor management and an inadequate number of teachers.
Simon Mann, the alleged mastermind behind a suspected mercenary plot foiled by Zimbabwe, has hired new lawyers to negotiate his release from a maximum-security jail in Harare. One of Mann’s co-accused claimed on Monday that Mann is pursuing a private deal with the Zimbabwe authorities, which could result in his transfer to Britain.
The powerful Austrian Catholic Church was plunged into its second big sex scandal in a decade on Monday when a seminary run by arch-conservatives was alleged to be the site of orgies among young priests and their teachers. The Vienna news magazine Profil has published pictures of priests and students engaged in sexual acts.
American officials are discussing the possibility of postponing November’s presidential election, for the first time in United States history, in the event of a devastating terrorist attack, it emerged on Monday. The Homeland Security Department has warned that al-Qaeda is plotting to disrupt the November 2 election.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the opposition Labour party on Monday took the first step towards forming a coalition government to see through the withdrawal of Jewish settlers from Gaza in the face of a growing revolt within the prime minister’s Likud party. The two party leaders agreed to begin negotiations next week.
The United States administration is negotiating with Poland and the Czech Republic over its controversial missile defence programme, with a view to positioning the biggest missile defence site outside the US in central Europe. The project is supposed to shield the US and its allies from long-range ballistic missile attacks.
The South African rand, along with the Turkish lira, is among the most vulnerable currencies to a possible reversal in risk appetite among investors, according to international investment bank Lehman Brothers. Investor sentiment could be tested after the upcoming release of United States inflation data, a recent research note said.