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/ 7 November 2007
Self-regulation for newspapers ratcheted up a gear last week with the inaugural meeting of the Press Council in Johannesburg. But the African National Congress (ANC) is also notching up its own pressure on the press. Comprising a panel of citizens and journalists, the Press Council was launched earlier this year to beef up the existing ombudsman in handling complaints about coverage. The system is a kind of fifth estate to check on the fourth.
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/ 7 November 2007
Iran has achieved a landmark in its controversial uranium-enrichment programme, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday, suggesting that the country now has 3 000 centrifuges fully operating. ”We have now reached 3 000 machines,” Ahmadinejad told thousands of Iranians gathered in Birjand, eastern Iran.
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/ 7 November 2007
The Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund is ”unaware” of having received any money from German arms manufacturer Thyssen-Krupp during the arms deal. Speaking in the National Assembly on Tuesday, Patricia de Lille said the African National Congress and the children’s fund benefited inappropriately from the arms deal.
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/ 7 November 2007
The war to halt perlemoen (abalone) poaching has pitched R180-a-kilogram divers on the one side against R4 000-a-month marine inspectors on the other, MPs heard on Wednesday during a briefing to members of Parliament’s environmental affairs portfolio committee.
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/ 7 November 2007
Locked security gates and the immobility of some residents as well as a suspected electrical fault all possibly contributed to the 12 deaths in a blaze on Tuesday night at one wing of a KwaZulu-Natal old-age home. One of those who managed to escape from the home is believed to be a 99-year-old woman.
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/ 7 November 2007
Soft-drink giant Coca-Cola, broadcaster SuperSport and the Octagon group of companies have withdrawn from the annual Nelson Mandela Invitational golf tournament. The three companies said in a joint statement on Wednesday they believed their continued participation in the tournament would be ”inappropriate”.
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/ 7 November 2007
Almost 6 000 people marched in the Johannesburg city centre on Wednesday, protesting against police murders in Gauteng. The march was organised by the Gauteng Provincial Community Policing Forum in partnership with police and Liquor Traders against Crime.
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/ 7 November 2007
Africa’s efforts to derive greater benefits from its mineral wealth were boosted on Wednesday with the launch of South Africa’s first black-owned diamond-cutting and -polishing facility. Southern Africa accounts for more than 40% of the world’s diamond output with Botswana being the world’s largest producer of the gem.
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/ 7 November 2007
West African military chiefs have charged that the United States has failed to consult adequately with countries that will be affected by a planned American military command for Africa. The group said the plan ”had not been fully understood” by African countries.
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/ 7 November 2007
Former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto threatened on Wednesday to lead a mass protest march to the capital unless President Pervez Musharraf quits as army chief, holds elections and restores the Constitution. Bhutto, the politician most capable of mobilising street power, gave Musharraf until Friday to comply.