Three United States troops have been charged with murder for shooting three Iraqi prisoners and threatening to kill a fellow soldier who wanted to report the incident, the Pentagon said on Monday. The three men killed were among 200 Iraqis held after a raid on a former chemical factory south-west of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s hometown, the Pentagon charge sheet said.
Taiwan’s tourism shares have soared over the past few months despite an overall drop in the market, but analysts say a few can rise even further as the island prepares to cut restrictions on travellers from rival China. Currently, Taiwan allows Chinese tourists to enter its territory only through a third point, usually Hong Kong.
Come up and see my coloured toilet rolls on a string, said the southern grey hornbill to his mate. That wasn’t all he was offering. The Johannesburg Zoo had recently installed a state of the art hornbill love nest on a pole. Tricky to get there –at least until they installed a ladder. It made a hornbill feel, well … horny.
Former South African president FW de Klerk was making good progress in his recovery, said his spokesperson Dave Steward on Tuesday. Steward said De Klerk remained in the intensive-care unit at Cape Town’s Panorama Medi-Clinic. This follows an operation to remove a cancerous growth on his colon on June 3.
The JSE was firmer in noon trade on Tuesday, with platinum stocks flying, fuelled by a higher platinum price and weaker rand. The underlying picture was a mixed one, however, and on the all-share index decliners slightly outnumbered advancers. By 11.59am, the all-share index added 0,68%.
Zimbabwe has set up roadblocks to prevent private buyers from purchasing maize from farmers, Harare’s Herald newspaper reported on Tuesday. ”We have our personnel on the ground to get hold of culprits that were illegally buying maize from farmers,” said Grain Marketing Board head Samuel Muvuti.
Poor ticket sales for last weekend’s rugby Test between South Africa and Scotland has deepened the money woes of the Eastern Province Rugby Union, Herald Online reported on Tuesday. It said only 17 000 tickets were sold for the match in Port Elizabeth. This resulted in the crisis-ridden union’s debt to South African Rugby ballooning to R3-million.
At no time has Standard Bank had any knowledge of — or "to the best of its knowledge" been party to — any unlawful actions of a fund administrator that has engaged the bank to provide the benefits of bulking by means of its cash-management service, MPs were told on Tuesday.
An old cleric, a young warrior and a desecrated Italian cemetery are at the centre of the debate over whether Somalia has become a haven for al-Qaeda terrorists. Ever since an Islamic militia seized control of the capital, Mogadishu, Western nations have expressed concern that Somalia could become a new base for Osama bin Laden’s terror group.
General John Abizaid, the head of the United States Central Command, held talks with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi on local and international efforts to combat terrorism, state media said on Tuesday. The talks came as Ethiopia faced accusations of deploying its troops inside Somalia to protect the country’s fledgling interim government.