British physicist and mathematician Stephen Hawking said on Tuesday that the human race should reach for the stars in order to survive. Speaking on a six-day visit to Hong Kong, Hawking said: ”It is important for the human race to spread out into space for the survival of the species.
South Africa will send a 128-member observer mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to monitor that country’s election, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad said on Tuesday. Pahad said the observer team will be deployed in key areas in all the provinces of the DRC ahead of the election scheduled for July 30.
Minister of Intelligence Ronnie Kasrils’s failure to make public a report on hoax e-mails by former intelligence head Billy Masetlha raises suspicions of a conspiracy against African National deputy president Jacob Zuma. This is according to Young Communist League national chairperson David Masondo.
The former commander of detectives at the Maitland police station was among three police officers remanded in custody by the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday. The former commander — Captain Trevor Chetty — and inspectors Ronnie Matthews and John Stevens face charges of corruption and defeating the ends of justice.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Tuesday he has given a green light to a transfer of weapons to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s personal security force so it can tackle Hamas. The light weapons, from Jordan, are to enable Abbas "to cope with Hamas", the hard-line Islamist group that leads the Palestinian government, Olmert said.
The African National Congress archives committee handed tapes and transcripts of 100 interviews with struggle veterans to the University of Connecticut and the University of Fort Hare on Tuesday. Among the veterans interviewed are Walter and Albertina Sisulu and Govan Mbeki.
South African President Thabo Mbeki will visit Sudan next week to evaluate the peace process in the war-ravaged western Darfur region, Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said on Tuesday. Mbeki is to meet with Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir and Vice-President Salva Kirr during the one-day visit on Tuesday.
Minister of Public Enterprises Alec Erwin on Tuesday called for bold steps by the private and public sectors to use the current economic realities for continued and increased growth. Speaking in debate on his Budget vote in the National Council of Provinces, Erwin said the past two or three years have shown the economy is very robust and competitive.
East African ministers on Tuesday sought ways of ending a devastating conflict in Somalia as Kenya pushed regional states to impose wider travel sanctions on warlords blamed for igniting the latest round of fighting in the capital, Mogadishu. The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development also called for support for a powerless transitional government.
Moroccan authorities have launched a wave of repression to stem the growing influence of an illegal Islamist movement, which many observers are already describing as the country’s biggest de-facto political party. Al Adl Wal Ihsane (Justice and Spirituality) is now so popular it would probably win elections if it was legalised and decided to enter politics, analysts said.