The Democratic Alliance (DA) has repeated its call for President Thabo Mbeki to urgently break the ”silence of silent diplomacy” towards Zimbabwe. The MDC this weekend accused Mbeki of misleading the world by constantly asserting there was progress in the talks between Zimbabwe’s government and the MDC, says the DA.
A secret French-South African anti-poaching operation in the Southern Ocean has led to the arrest of an fishing vessel — but only after shots were fired at the suspected poacher when it refused to stop. The arrest took place about 5 000km south-east of Cape Town, within the economic exclusion zone around the French Antarctic island of Kerguelen.
<i>Iphepha elisematheni lesiZulu, Isolezwe, seliyatholakala kwi-Internet</i>. Yes, <i>Isolezwe (Eye of the Nation)</i>, the KwaZulu-Natal-based, Zulu-language daily newspaper, is now available on the web. This makes the site the first Zulu news website. This is a bold step for the cheeky, two-year-old, ground-breaking newspaper, founded by well-known journalist Cyril Madlala.
Microsoft and Japan’s top computer maker Fujitsu said on Monday they have agreed to jointly develop next-generation Windows-based servers for release from 2005. Fujitsu and Microsoft said global sales from the new servers, software products and services are expected to reach 800-billion yen (,2-billion) by 2007.
The United States-led coalition on Monday transferred sovereignty to the interim Iraqi government, two days ahead of the scheduled June 30 handover date. The transfer of power took place in a ceremony in Baghdad’s heavily guarded green zone, where outgoing US governor Paul Bremer signed over the country — and its escalating security troubles — to interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.
Fifteen people were killed in a head-on collision between a taxi and a bakkie on the R61 near Aberdeen in the Eastern Cape on Monday morning, police said. Inspector Stephanie Smith said the drivers of both vehicles were among the dead. Twelve people were injured and were being treated in the Aberdeen hospital and the Midland hospital in Graaff-Reinet.
Police arrested a match commissioner in Welkom on Sunday, bringing to 19 the number of soccer officials who have been picked up in Operation Dribble, the police’s swoop against alleged match-fixing in soccer. A club director in Gauteng was also arrested over the weekend, and was expected to appear in the Welkom magistrate’s court on Monday.
Johannesburg police were still searching on Monday for the killer of Lord of the Dance merchandiser Daryl Kempster and appealed to the public for help. Kempster (37) from Bedfordshire in Britain, was shot by unidentified gunmen in the early hours of Sunday as he made his way from the Civic Theatre to the nearby Parktonian hotel.
The chilling spate of hostage taking in Iraq escalated on Sunday when Islamist militants claimed to have taken a United States marine captive and threatened to behead him unless Iraqi prisoners are freed. The US military on Sunday night said it was investigating video footage aired on the Arabic television station al-Jazeera showing a blindfolded man dressed in camouflage fatigues.
Withdrawing from previous pledges to freeze all uranium-enrichment activities, Tehran said on Sunday it would resume manufacturing parts for centrifuges on Tuesday and would also restart the assembly of the centrifuges, the machines that refine crude uranium into bomb-grade material or nuclear fuel for power stations.