The Democratic Alliance (DA) on Wednesday officially wrote to President Thabo Mbeki asking him to fire Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. It cited Tshabalala-Msimang’s obsession with good nutrition as a substitute for proper HIV/Aids treatment as one of the reasons she should be fired.
A former Iraqi lawmaker gave chilling testimony of torture and beatings at the trial on Wednesday of 15 aides of executed dictator Saddam Hussein, including the notorious ”Chemical Ali”, who are accused of crimes against humanity. ”I heard screams of pain as prisoners were beaten and tortured,” the witness said.
Efforts by media lawyers to obtain access to documents relating to former National Intelligence Agency boss Billy Masetlha amounted to a ”fishing expedition”, a Constitutional Court judge said on Wednesday. ”With respect, does this not come close to a fishing expedition?” Judge Dikgang Moseneke asked.
India’s National Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi met former South African president Nelson Mandela at the Nelson Mandela Foundation on Wednesday. Gandhi said she was honoured to be meeting Mandela. ”It is a privilege — a visit to South Africa wouldn’t be complete without calling on Madiba,” she said.
The new chairperson of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, is prioritising the setting up of a free trade area (FTA) by next year, reports said on Wednesday. As the dust settles after a hectic SADC summit, Trade and Commerce Minister Felix Mutat has placed the establishment of the FTA on top of the agenda.
The South African Medical Association (Sama) said on Wednesday that the ”whistle-blowing” on the part of a doctor at East London’s Frere Hospital was an ethical and responsible intervention. Professor Denise White, acting chairperson of Sama, said investigations were needed to establish whether or not the rights of patients had been further violated.
The N1 highway southbound near the John Vorster Avenue offramp in Centurion was re-opened to traffic on Wednesday after a toxic spill, Tshwane metro police said. Spokesperson Louise Britz said drivers had listened to radio reports advising the use of alternative routes and so there was no traffic back-up.
A new set of photographs appeared to cast doubt on testimony by a senior police forensics expert in the Inge Lotz murder trial on Wednesday. The photographs were produced by the defence when Superintendent Stef Koekemoer, manager of the national fingerprint laboratory in Pretoria, was recalled to the stand for more questioning.
A man was killed and about 300 people were injured on Wednesday as a student protest that began at Bangladesh’s Dhaka University spread to other institutions in the city and across the country, witnesses said. The victim, a rickshaw-puller, was caught in clashes between police and students at a university in the north-western city of Rajshahi.
Eighty-nine people have died in flooding in Sudan as heavy rains that washed away homes and spread water-borne disease continue to batter the country, a government official said on Wednesday. Sudanese officials have described this year’s floods as the worst in living memory with unexpectedly early rains destroying more than 70Â 000 homes.