Police have arrested 172 militants who were plotting to attack Saudi Arabia’s oil fields, the Saudi state TV channel al-Ekhbariah reported on Friday. The channel broadcast footage of the large quantity of weapons of all kinds that were discovered buried in the desert. The arms included bricks of plastic explosives, ammunition cartridges, handguns and rifles.
All South Africans were called upon to join the fight against crime and corruption by President Thabo Mbeki in his Freedom Day speech at Bhisho in the Eastern Cape on Friday. ”There is a minority in our country who have made crime their business, who terrorise our communities, robbing our people … raping women and children …,” Mbeki said at the Bhisho Stadium.
West Ham’s Premiership survival hopes were given a massive boost on Friday when the east London club escaped a points deduction over the controversial signings of Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano. The Hammers were hit with a massive fine of £5,5-million for breaching Premiership regulations governing transfers.
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.
Two government doctors in Zimbabwe tasked with verifying the medical condition of jailed British mercenary Simon Mann have concluded that any delay in operating on him could be disastrous, his lawyer said on Friday. Mann, who is accused of plotting to overthrow the government in Equatorial Guinea, is due to be released from a Zimbabwean high security jail on May 11.
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".