Al-Qaeda’s second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri, on Tuesday threatened more attacks on Britain two weeks after failed bombings in London and Glasgow. ”I say to [former British prime minister Tony] Blair’s successor that the policy of your predecessor drew catastrophes in Afghanistan and Iraq,” he said in a tape posted on a website.
Oscar Pistorius believes he has the talent to compete against the best Olympic-level runners in the world. Pistorius, a double-amputee who races on carbon-fibre blades attached below his knees, will get his chance this weekend when he runs in a world-class able-bodied race for the first time.
Lesotho on Tuesday charged five men, including three members of the African mountain kingdom’s defence force, with treason in connection with recent attacks on leading politicians. They were arrested by soldiers in the city last weekend, weeks after houses belonging to three government ministers and the leader of the main opposition party were shot at.
The Labour Court has ordered that striking South African National Parks (SANParks) employees must comply with all provisions of the picketing rules, park authorities said on Tuesday. ”In practical terms this means that striking Hospersa [Health and Other Services Personnel Trade Union of South Africa] members will cease their unlawful conduct in the park.”
A ”typing error” has put paid to an application by three Ekurhuleni metro police for a restraining order against their chief, Robert McBride. It emerged in the Johannesburg High Court on Tuesday that McBride was informed in a notice of motion that the urgent application would be heard on Monday ”July 9”, instead of July 10.
The Southern African Development Community should step in to save the deteriorating economy of Zimbabwe, South Africa’s minister of foreign affairs said on Tuesday. ”We are concerned about the situation in Zimbabwe and its economic situation, which has been deteriorating,” Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said in Pretoria.
The R5,3-million insurance policy on Taliep Petersen’s life, to which first his widow Najwa and later his minor daughter were beneficiaries, has not yet been paid. This was revealed in the Wynberg Regional Court in Cape Town on Tuesday. The court heard a bail application by Najwa and one of her three co-accused in Taliep’s murder.
Three Ekurhuleni metro police brought an application in the Johannesburg High Court on Tuesday for a restraining order against their chief, Robert McBride. The application was being brought by Ekurhuleni metro police chief Superintendent Stanley Segathevan, Chief Superintendent Patrick Johnston and Superintendent Itumeleng Koko.
Metal and engineering industry unions have rejected an offer employers put on the table on Tuesday afternoon, said Solidarity. Solidarity spokesperson Jaco Kleynhans said that after unions rejected the increased offer, employers held their own caucus meeting. Unions and employers were expected to meet back at the negotiation table on Tuesday evening.
The White House hit back on Tuesday in a bid to stem a growing Republican revolt over Iraq strategy, as Democrats drove home a searing attack on President George Bush over the war. The president’s spokesperson, Tony Snow, pushed back against reports Iraq would meet no benchmarks on political and military progress in an interim assessment due later this week.