The Democratic Alliance is to invoke the Promotion of Access to Information Act in an attempt to force Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula to reveal how many police officers have been killed this year. Nqakula left for Burundi on Tuesday ”at a time when armed criminals are waging a war of their own against police … ”, DA spokesperson Roy Jankielsohn said.
Human rights in health care is not just an apartheid-era issue, but one that still challenges health professionals in South Africa today, the director of the Steve Biko Foundation, Nkosinathi Biko, said on Wednesday. ”There is a tendency to think of it mainly in relation to politically derived violations of human rights,” he said at a conference on the subject.
A United States jury has sentenced an Oklahoma judge to one year in prison for using a penis pump on the bench during three murder trials and a civil case in 2002 and 2003. Donald D Thompson (59) was convicted on Thursday and fined $10 000 for each count.
The undisputed king of the world competitive-eating circuit, Takeru "Tsunami" Kobayashi, retained his title on Tuesday, wolfing down a world-record 53-and-three-quarters hot dogs in just 12 minutes. The 28-year-old "gurgitator" from Nagano, Japan, won the coveted Mustard Yellow Belt for the sixth successive year.
Portuguese police on Tuesday captured a kangaroo that had been on the loose in suburban Lisbon for three days after escaping from a farm where it was being held illegally as a pet. Police received the first report that a kangaroo had been spotted on the streets of Sintra, about 30km north-west of Lisbon, on Sunday morning.
The case of the former speaker of the Rustenburg municipality, Elizabeth Seduke, and three others accused of stealing cellphones was postponed in the Rustenburg Regional Court on Wednesday. The accused are alleged to have renewed cellphones contracts allocated to Rustenburg councillors and then kept the handsets, which were later sold.
Tuareg rebels who attacked military camps in north-eastern Mali in May signed a peace agreement on Tuesday with government officials from Bamako, officials said. The agreement ”reaffirmed the territorial integrity, national unity as well as the republican and democratic principles and values of Mali”.
Israel on Wednesday authorised the army to forge deeper into Gaza and to step up attacks on the Hamas-led government after Islamist militants launched an unprecedented rocket strike on the Jewish state. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s security Cabinet ordered the military to intensify air raids against Hamas.
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The Friends of Jacob Zuma Trust is angered by what it calls sensationalising of the multimillion-rand defamation claims that the former deputy president is launching against several media groups, a statement said on Wednesday. ”We are tired of the blatant media bias against our friend, Jacob Zuma,” a statement read.
”Some money” was taken from Standard Bank clients when hackers gained access to the bank’s accounts, group spokesperson Ross Linstrom said on Wednesday. ”There has been some money [taken] but very little. That is not our concern. Our concern is tightening up [security]. In terms of people, it is less than ten,” Linstrom said.