United Kingdom Muslim groups said on Saturday that the UK’s policies on Iraq and Lebanon were fuelling militancy, as Pakistan said it had arrested a UK al-Qaeda member over an alleged plot to blow up transatlantic airliners. A court gave UK police more time to question 22 of the 24 suspects arrested in swoops on Thursday.
The United Nations Security Council unanimously approved a resolution calling for an end to the conflict in Lebanon late on Friday night. Israel announced it would respect the plan, but said it would not call off a full-scale land invasion, launched on Friday, before Sunday at the earliest.
The Second Network Operator (SNO) has been given access to an inter-city communication network following the singing of an agreement on Friday, it said. The heads of agreement, signed with the Department of Public Enterprises, provides for the SNO to have access to an inter-city, high-capacity, full-services network, the SNO said in a statement.
It is time Africans take responsibility for how their continent is portrayed, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday. Writing in his weekly newsletter on the African National Congress website, Mbeki said every day the African and global media publish articles about Africa.
The United States and Lebanon said on Friday a deal on a United Nations resolution to end Israel’s month-old war with Hezbollah guerrillas is in sight. But Israel told the US it would not automatically accept any such resolution, Israeli television said. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert also ordered the army to expand its ground offensive.
Three men from a Pretoria engineering company were killed and a woman critically wounded when one of the company’s directors opened fire on Friday, police said. The incident happened around 12.15pm at the Silver Unicorn offices in Sunnyside, said Gauteng police spokesperson Mary Martins-Engelbrecht.
An earthquake rocked central and western Mexico on Friday, forcing office workers and residents to evacuate buildings in Mexico City. The tremor, measuring 5,9 in magnitude, was centred in the western Michoacan state. It was not immediately known whether there were any casualties or serious damage to buildings.
Five foreign nationals were sentenced to varying prison terms after they were arrested for attempting to smuggle R8-million worth of perlemoen (abalone), the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said on Friday. Three Chinese and two Zimbabweans appeared in the Rustenburg Magistrate’s Court on Friday where judgment was handed down, said NPA spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi.
The National Directorate of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding with its Mozambican counterpart to fight cross-border crime. ”The agreement will facilitate the exchange of techniques and strategies in the field of combating crime, particularly cross-border organised crime,” NDPP spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi said.
Passengers in transit to London must ensure that they comply with new security measures on hand luggage, South African Airways (SAA) said on Friday. The airline said in a statement that passengers connecting to further destinations are requested to travel without hand luggage to avoid inconvenience at London’s Heathrow airport.