No price was too high to allow Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to step down, Mail & Guardian publisher Trevor Ncube said in Johannesburg on Wednesday. ”If that means giving Robert Mugabe immunity from prosecution, let that be done,” he told a public debate on leadership in Zimbabwe.
A bridge over the Mississippi, linking Minneapolis and St Paul, collapsed on Wednesday night during evening rush-hour traffic, sending cars and trucks plunging into the river. The entire span of the bridge, a major link between the two cities, fell apart in sections like an accordion, according to one witness.
Decorum was abandoned as accusations ricocheted between the wood-panelled walls of Pakistan’s national assembly on Monday night. "Murderers! Murderers of innocent people!" screamed an MP from a religious party, his yellow turban shaking as he wagged a finger towards the government benches.
It is my opinion that the great majority of the members of the SAP [South African Police] and SADF [South African Defence Force] were honorable, dedicated and trustworthy people and were equally uninformed about extra-legal murders, assassinations, et cetera, says former president FW de Klerk.
A situation out of sync could be remedied this week with the formal launch of the Press Council on Friday. The new body is intended to beef up the role of the press ombudsman — a one-person operation that has dealt with public complaints about newspapers over the past 10 years.
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The crisis in Turkey has been portrayed, simplistically, as a struggle between secular democracy and Islam. But matters are far more complex. Last Sunday the Justice and Development Party, the allegedly Islamist grouping led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, captured many more votes than its opponents in a national poll, writes Suren Pillay.
Floyd Mayweather Jnr has agreed to come out of retirement to fight Ricky Hatton, the British boxer’s father, Ray, said on Wednesday. Hatton is expected to move up a division from light welterweight for the fight, which will probably be staged on December 8 in Las Vegas, where he beat Jose Luis Castillo in June to retain his IBO title.
The Presidency has rejected the notion of a multiparty team to advise the government on post-Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) matters. Spokesperson Mukoni Ratshitanga said on Wednesday guidelines followed by the National Prosecuting Authority on the post-TRC legal process were approved by the Cabinet and adopted by the National Assembly.
A lever to control engine speed was in the wrong position and probably a major case of a Brazil’s worst air accident last month, according to flight-recorder data cited by a newspaper on Wednesday. An Airbus A320 operated by Brazilian carrier TAM Linhas Aereas barrelled off the wet runway upon landing at Congonhas airport in São Paulo on July 17.