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/ 13 September 2006
Opponents of veteran Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe abandoned plans on Wednesday for a series of anti-government protests after the organisers were arrested in a police crackdown. The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions had hoped thousands of protesters would take to the streets in nationwide rallies to denounce fuel and food shortages.
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/ 13 September 2006
The prosecutor in the genocide trial of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein on Wednesday demanded that the chief judge resign, saying he was too lenient with defendants who had threatened lawyers and witnesses. ”Defendants have gone too far, with unacceptable expressions and words,” prosecutor Munqith al-Faroon said at the opening of the latest hearing.
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/ 13 September 2006
Israeli President Moshe Katsav was grilled by police on Wednesday for a fifth time over allegations of sexual harassment in a mounting scandal that threatens to end his career. Katsav was questioned by police investigators for five hours at his Jerusalem residence, police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld said.
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/ 13 September 2006
Axed spy boss Billy Masetlha was on Wednesday served with a criminal summons at the Brooklyn police station in Pretoria, South African Broadcasting Corporation news reported. His lawyer, Imraan Haffegee, said Masetlha was not arrested, but summoned to appear in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court on October 20.
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/ 13 September 2006
The apartheid-era operative dubbed ”Dr Death” for his alleged role in plots to murder black activists is still on the South African military payroll, officials confirmed on Wednesday. Wouter Basson receives a monthly salary of R50Â 000 from the South African National Defence Force, even though he was suspended from the force in 1999, they said.
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/ 13 September 2006
Seven of the 18 people arrested for the Jeppestown shootout after a supermarket robbery in June appeared in the Roodepoort Regional Court on Wednesday. However, their bail application was postponed until October 4 as one of their lawyers was ill. Four police officers and eight suspected robbers died in the bloody shootout.
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/ 13 September 2006
Children who had not been breastfed were more at risk during the diarrhoea outbreak of November 2005/February 2006 after major flooding in Botswana, says the United Kingdom-based National Aids Map organisation. In its September HIV and Aids treatment in practice newsletter, it said 470 children who were under five years old died in the 12 health districts of Botswana surveyed.
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/ 13 September 2006
The European Commission is to restrict the amount of liquids allowed in hand luggage for air passengers, in a new security measure, Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot said on Wednesday. ”Following the incidents of this summer we have sought to introduce a response proportional to the needs of security,” Barrot told reporters in Brussels.
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/ 13 September 2006
Police found dozens of bullet-riddled corpses in Baghdad on Wednesday, and two car bombs killed 28 people and wounded scores more in the Iraqi capital as a wave of sectarian violence ravaged the country. At least 69 bodies were recovered in the past 24 hours from across Iraq, including 64 from Baghdad, many of them shot dead execution-style, security officials said.
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/ 13 September 2006
Smokers who pop outside for a cigarette could still find themselves running foul of the law under new legislation being planned by the South African government, officials said on Wednesday. A Bill drafted by the ministry of health is looking to introduce a new offence of smoking outdoors within a prescribed distance from a window, ventilation outlet, doorway or entrance to a public place.