A court in Zimbabwe has ordered an internal police probe into the serious assault while in custody of an opposition activist, reports said on Friday. Magistrate Lazarus Murendo also ordered that the Movement for Democratic Change activist, Phillip Mabika, be treated in hospital, the official Herald newspaper said.
The Waikato Chiefs beat the New South Waratahs 28-23 in Sydney on Friday to stay in the hunt for a place in the Super 14 semifinals. A late try by replacement Tane Tu’ipulotou sealed victory for the New Zealand side, who climbed to third in the standings with one game left.
South Africans have much to celebrate on the country’s 13th Freedom Day, but they face the same number of real threats to hard-won liberty, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said. ”It is a sad irony that after 13 years there are 13 very real threats to our hard-won liberty, and we need to have a frank and honest discussion about them.”
Judicial executions dropped sharply in 2006, but at least 19 000 people remained on death row at the end of the year, Amnesty International said in its annual report published on Friday. A total of 1 591 people were executed, most of them in China, down from 2 148 in 2005, the London-based rights group said.
Libyan Judge Salem Hamrouni last Sunday postponed a hearing in the slander trial brought against six medical workers.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe threatened on Friday to "kick out" Western ambassadors from Harare, and called British Prime Minister Tony Blair a "dictator" coordinating sanctions against his country. In a wide-ranging magazine interview, he also defended the recent beating of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, saying "these things happen".
Motorists caught speeding because they are late for meetings will face the full wrath of the law, KwaZulu-Natal traffic authorities said on Friday. Asked whether motorists who are caught speeding will be able to have their fines quashed, eThekwini metro police spokesperson John-Thomas Tyala said: ”We can’t allow that. The Act [National Road Traffic Act] does not allow for that.”
Washington and London should appoint envoys to help ensure Uganda’s government and Lord’s Resistance Army rebels do not squander their best hope for peace in 20 years, an influential think-tank said on Friday. Talks resumed in south Sudan on Thursday, with United Nations envoy Joaquim Chissano warning that if squandered, the opportunity may never return.
Gunmen plundered computers and bags of sugar from a Coca-Cola plant in Mogadishu on Friday during a lull in fighting between allied Somali-Ethiopian troops and insurgents, a local manager said. The unidentified group, who were wearing uniforms, commandeered 12 trucks to drive away the booty seized in the overnight looting spree.
The Hurricanes held off New Zealand rivals the Highlanders 22-21 in Wellington on Friday to keep alive their faint hopes of reaching the Super 14 semifinals. The teams scored two tries apiece, the last of which was by the Highlanders’ Toby Morland in the dying seconds, but flyhalf Nick Evans missed the conversion that would have given his side victory.