German Chancellor Angel Merkel on Friday dismissed fears of crime derailing the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa. Doomsayers had triggered heated debate in Germany with their criticisms over its hosting of the soccer spectacular in 2006 and she was sure the same ”may well happen in South Africa”.
Reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il has boasted of being an "internet expert," reports said on Saturday. The communist state keeps itself closed to the outside world to prevent so-called spiritual pollution from subverting its hard-line socialist system.
COUNTERPOINT: One can only conclude that the decision on Zuma was politically palatable to the president, whereas the decision on Selebi was not. The suspension of National Director of Public Prosecutions Vusi Pikoli represents a profound crisis of governance, writes Sam Sole.
Gunmen released a cargo plane and its Russian crew that had been hijacked in northern Somalia, authorities said on Friday. Muse Gelle Yusuf, the governor of the northern Bari region where the plane was taken on Thursday, said that clan elders had managed to convince the two young gunmen to release the plane and its cargo.
President Thabo Mbeki steered clear on Friday of the furore over suspended National Prosecuting Authority head Vusi Pikoli, opting to devote his weekly newsletter, ANC Today, to eye-care awareness week. As readers remained in the dark on Mbeki’s own views on the controversy, he began this week’s column with: ”Those who have eyes to see, let them see!”
Detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s party dismissed the Burma junta’s offer of talks as surreal on Friday as a United Nations envoy warned of ”serious international consequences” from the junta’s brutal suppression of pro-democracy protesters.
President of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses Ernest Blom has withdrawn from the verification process of a ”7 000-carat diamond” found in the North West in August. ”I withdraw from the process completely and disassociate myself from any further press statements made by anyone but myself,” Blom said on Friday in a statement.
The lack of legislation regulating the conduct of judges has resulted in Cape Judge President John Hlophe getting away with a ”slap on the wrist”, the Democratic Alliance (DA) said on Friday. DA spokesperson on justice Sheila Camerer said Hlophe’s case highlighted the need to expedite the passing of such legislation.
At least 30 people drowned in a river in the remote north-western Nigerian state of Kebbi after two dug-out boats they were travelling in collided head-on, the Red Cross said on Friday. One of the boats was laden with petroleum products when it collided with the other boat, which was carrying traders.
President George Bush said on Friday that the United States does not use torture during interrogations, amid renewed debate about his administration’s methods in the war on terror. ”This government does not torture people. We stick to US law and our international obligations,” Bush said.