Former Liberian president Charles Taylor has been assigned a new team of lawyers to defend him against war-crimes charges at a United Nations-backed court in The Hague, a court document revealed on Wednesday. Taylor (59), the first African head of state to stand trial before an international court for war crimes, had boycotted the opening of his trial and sacked his lawyer.
Tour golfers are taking performance-enhancing drugs and escaping sanction because the sport does not have dope testing, Gary Player said on the eve of the 136th Open Championship. ”I know there are golfers doing it [taking drugs], whether it’s HGH [human growth hormone], whether it’s creatine or whether it’s steroids,” Player said.
Thirty-seven people died in a 16-hour thunder storm in south-west China that caused heavy flooding and brought air, road and rail traffic to a halt, the government and state media said on Wednesday. Chongqing municipality received 266,6mm of rain between Monday night and Tuesday afternoon, the largest volume since records began in 1892, Xinhua news agency said.
The 26 finalists for the 2007 CNN MultiChoice African Journalist of the Year award were announced this week, with nine of them from South Africa, representing the print media, television and radio broadcasting spectrum. The South African finalists include five producers working with M-Net’s news and actuality show Carte Blanche.
A 39-year-old prisoner at the Ncome prison near Vryheid claims to be the hit man in the murder of Free State official Noby Ngombane, media reports said on Wednesday. Ngombane was shot dead at his home in Bloemfontein on March 22 2005. He was a senior official in Free State Premier Beatrice Marshoff’s office.
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Nelson Mandela, the icon of South Africa’s struggle against apartheid, marked his 89th birthday on Wednesday by launching his fellow elder statesmen on a new venture to reduce conflict and despair. The former South African president was the host and star turn at a ceremony to announce the formation of a brains trust of world leaders.
An interim interdict to prevent striking workers from entering, interfering with or obstructing access to Vodacom premises was extended on Wednesday. The Labour Court extended the interdict to Friday, when it will deliver a final decision on whether the interim interdict will be made permanent, said a Vodacom spokesperson.
Cricket South Africa announced a provisional 30-man South African squad on Wednesday, from which the final 15-man Proteas squad to play in the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) inaugural World Twenty20 South Africa 2007 tournament will be chosen. The final, 15-man Proteas squad must be submitted to the ICC by August 11.
A white powder found at a post office at Alberton, south of Johannesburg, earlier this month was not anthrax, police said on Wednesday. Eleven people were admitted to hospital on July 6 after they came in contact with an envelope containing a white powder.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has postponed a court interdict that would have prevented a screening of the controversial documentary Unauthorised: Thabo Mbeki by the Mail & Guardian in Johannesburg on Wednesday evening.