A United States military tribunal at Guantànamo formally convicted Australian David Hicks on Friday on a charge of providing material support for terrorism. The tribunal’s judge accepted Hicks’s guilty plea as part of an agreement that limits his sentence to seven years, in addition to the five years he has already been detained at the Guantànamo prison.
The state has launched an extraordinary bid for a secret trial of two South African residents accused of being part of an international network of nuclear technology smugglers. The move is portrayed as vital to prevent the dissemination of information that would allow rogue states to develop nuclear weapons, but the blackout seems as much designed to protect the dirty secrets of South Africa’s nuclear past as to stop future proliferation.
With less than nine months to go before the ANC national conference, which will choose a new leadership, adversaries Jacob Zuma and President Thabo Mbeki are using very different strategies in their attempts to win support. Last weekend was a case in point.
Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri has moved to remove South African Post Office CEO Khutso Mampeule, dubbed “Mr Clean” for his robust campaign against procurement sleaze. Mampeule’s cancellation of contracts at the parastatal, among them a controversial R100-million deal to revamp branches, earned him powerful enemies and soured relations with his board.
The most vital of the government’s growth initiative Asgisa’s aims is job creation as it has pledged to cut joblessness in half by 2014. The Mail & Guardian sought to find out from South Africa’s leading labour market economists if Asgisa is on track to live up to its pledge.
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Amateur radio operators offered on Thursday to step in if monitoring of shipping emergency calls is affected by a Telkom strike. The strike, by staff at Telkom’s maritime radio facility in Milnerton, Cape Town, is set to start at midnight. Hans van de Groenendaal, spokesperson for the South African Radio League, said the league had contacted rescue authorities to offer its services.
World leaders must speak out to help pull Zimbabwe out of a political and economic quagmire, former United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu said on Thursday. ” … this is not the time for silent diplomacy,” the authors wrote in an opinion piece in the Washington Post.
Draft legislation that will dramatically increase the penalties for those found guilty of contravening anti-smoking laws was passed by the National Assembly on Thursday. The Tobacco Products Control Amendment Bill aims to close loopholes in existing legislation that are ”exploited by the tobacco industry and make prosecutions for contravention … very difficult”.
Irish rock star and anti-poverty campaigner Bono was made an honorary British knight at a ceremony in Dublin on Thursday, the British embassy said. Presenting the insignia on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II, ambassador David Reddaway said it was awarded in recognition of his services to the music industry and for his humanitarian work.