A commuter train driver was trapped for four hours after his train ploughed into the back of a freight train near the Muldersvlei station in the Boland three years ago, the Paarl Regional Court heard on Tuesday. The driver, Mervyne Matthee (59), is on trial on 10 counts of culpable homicide.
Cape Judge President John Hlophe’s return from long leave despite persisting conflict of interest charges against him bodes ill for public confidence in the judiciary, the Democratic Alliance said on Tuesday. Hlophe has reportedly claimed to have had permission from former minister Dullah Omar to receive money from a private company.
Israel agreed on Tuesday to allow aid airlifts to Lebanon but said it was determined to pursue a war against Hezbollah that key ally the United States has sanctioned. After meeting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said both agreed that disarming Hezbollah and deploying an international force were key to resolving the two-week-old crisis.
United States internet search engine Yahoo and software security giant Symantec Corporation launched a joint service on Tuesday to protect people online from hackers, viruses, spyware and spam. Norton internet security provided by Yahoo was billed by the companies as an all-in-one security service that blocked intruders, identity thieves and malicious software.
South Africa has the makings of a great nation, the leader of the African Peer Review Mechanism country assessment team said on Tuesday. Wrapping up a two-week visit to the country, Professor Adebayo Adedeji said South Africans are proud of their country and prepared to talk about its weaknesses and strengths.
A South African company on Tuesday unveiled plans for the continent’s first billion-dollar factory to make bio-ethanol from maize, as Africa races to find alternative energy sources in the face of soaring oil prices. The Ethanol Africa plant, located in the Free State province, is expected to be in full production next year, making up to half-a-million litres of bio-ethanol a day.
Somalia’s Islamists said on Tuesday they would not attend peace talks with the interim government until Ethiopian troops left their soil, and for the first time acknowledged Eritrean backing for their cause. ”As long as Ethiopia is in our country, talks with the government cannot go ahead,” the Islamists’ main leader, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, said.
President Robert Mugabe opened a new legislative year on Tuesday with a low key speech to Parliament, blaming economic problems on Britain and other Western critics of his human rights record. Zimbabwe is in a state of economic collapse, suffering from the world’s highest inflation rate — more than 1 000% — and shortages of all basic goods.
The world record for the biggest ensemble of spoon players has been set in Britain, the organiser of the event announced on Tuesday. Amateur street-theatre group Stripey-Jumper rounded up 345 people to bash out a version of pub favourite <i>Knees Up Mother Brown</i> before an eagle-eyed panel of adjudicators.
A member of South Africa’s observer mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo has been sent home, the leader of the mission and Deputy Minister of Defence Mluleki George said on Tuesday. George said the man, who belongs to the South African NGO Coalition, had breached the mission’s code of conduct.