Outgoing Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has embarked on a sale of state assets to allies in the private sector in the dying days of his administration, prompting accusations of double standards. Critics say Obasanjo is disregarding due process and paying off his friends with the sales within days of his handover to president-elect Umaru Yar’Adua on May 29.
British prosecutors will charge former KGB agent Andrei Lugovoy with the murder of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, who died in London last year after being poisoned with radioactive polonium. The Crown Prosecution Service said on Tuesday there was enough evidence to charge Lugovoy and seek his extradition from Russia.
Fraud convict Schabir Shaik has been sent back to Durban’s Westville prison, the Correctional Services department said on Tuesday. It is believed that Shaik was returned to the prison on Monday night. He was referred to the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital in Durban over a month ago, after he spent two months at a prison infirmary, and 83 days at St Augustine’s hospital.
The International Criminal Court’s prosecutor opened an investigation on Tuesday into allegations of rape and sexual violence in the Central African Republic committed during the armed conflict of 2002 and 2003. The ICC said reports indicated that rape had been committed against civilians, including elderly women, young girls and men.
Illness-plagued Bafana Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira has ruled out Orlando Pirates striker Lebohang Mokoena and Santos midfielder Erwin Isaacs from the South African squad for Cosafa Cup games this weekend — but he remained undecided on Monday whether he would make the trip to Swaziland himself.
On Merseyside they like to remember it as the ”Miracle of Istanbul”; in Milan they would just like to forget it. If the 2005 Champions League final is ever recalled in the red-and-black heartlands of Lombardy, it is with the kind of shivery discomfort usually associated with the aftermath of a particularly unpleasant dream.
Maybe it doesn’t matter which striker starts — Filippo Inzaghi or Alberto Gilardino — because most of AC Milan’s scoring in the Champions League this season has come from Kaka. The Brazilian leads the competitions with 10 goals — two more than he scored in the Italian league season.
England and West Indies drew the first Test at Lord’s on Monday as the weather had the final say in the opening encounter of a four-match series. West Indies finished the fifth day on 89 without loss, 312 runs short of their victory target of 401, but having comfortably avoided any prospect of defeat during a last day where rain and bad light meant only 20 overs were bowled.
England’s new coach Peter Moores tried to play down the prospect of South Africa pace great Allan Donald joining his backroom staff after seeing the home side’s fast bowlers struggle during the drawn first Test against West Indies at Lord’s. England’s quicks struggled to make much of an impression against a West Indies side ranked a lowly eighth in the world Test rankings.
Newly appointed Home Affairs director general Mavuso Msimang has downplayed the gravity of sexual harassment charges hanging over his head, saying they do not give him any ”sleepless nights”. Briefing the media in Cape Town on Tuesday, Msimang said the allegations would not affect his duties.