Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang on Monday voiced concern about the ethics of current clinical trials on microbicides. The recruitment and compensation of candidates who suffer complications from clinical trials in developing countries needed further discussion, the minister said at the start of a three-day international microbicides conference in Cape Town.
Microsoft began a challenge on Monday before the European Union’s second-highest court of the European Commission’s landmark antitrust ruling against it, arguing that the future of innovation in the technology industry was at stake. In an opening statement, Microsoft lawyer Jean-Francois Bellis said the commission made ”serious errors” in its decision two years ago that the company abused its dominant market position.
Darwin N Davis, who was among the first United States blacks to hold a top corporate position, has died. He was 74. Last year, Davis was named one of ”the bravest generation” by Fortune magazine for being among the first black executives to fight their way to the top of corporate America.
John ”Johnny” Checketts, a World War II fighter pilot who crippled at least 14 enemy planes and twice survived being shot down, died last week at his New Zealand home, a newspaper reported on Monday. He was 94. Checketts died in the southern city of Christchurch on Friday.
Italian actress Alida Valli, who featured in films by Alfred Hitchcock and Luchino Visconti, died in Rome on Saturday at the age of 84, Ansa news agency said. She made her cinema debut at the age of 15 and appeared in more than 100 films, including Hitchcock’s The Paradine Case (1947).
China has agreed to supply Iran with 50 passenger trains over the next two years in a deal worth nearly $60-million, state press said on Monday. China’s state-run Changchun Track Passenger Train Company will supply the double-decker trains as well as provide spare parts, tools and technical services.
The South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) accused Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana on Monday of favouring employers in the current security-industry wage strike. Last week, Mdladlana said he wanted a trade union bigger than Satawu in the security industry.
Roy Bennett, a former opposition member of Zimbabwe’s Parliament, is seeking political asylum in South Africa because he fears for his life. Bennett, a senior member of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, was released from prison in June last year after serving eight months for shoving the justice minister during a heated debate in Parliament.
Teachers at a school in rural Zimbabwe have been convicted of assault after a brutal caning spree during which they beat around 300 children with broomsticks for being late for lessons, breaking one girl’s arm, it was reported on Monday. The incident happened before Easter at Rambanepasi High School in the eastern Hwedza district, said the state-controlled The Herald newspaper.
The case against six people accused of murdering three laundry workers was struck off the roll at the Vereeniging Magistrate’s Court on Monday due to insufficient evidence against the accused. ”The big problem is that the case has been dealt with in a very, very amateurish way,” the magistrate said.