The relatives of those who died in the September 2004 Beslan school siege vowed to continue their campaign for justice on Friday night after the sole surviving hostage-taker was convicted on murder and terrorism charges and sentenced to life in prison.
The land and agriculture sector is waiting with bated breath to see if the new Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs, Lulu Xingwana, lives up to her fire-eating reputation in this sensitive portfolio. Reacting to her public statements as the former deputy minister of minerals and energy, Xingwana’s critics branded them ”naked racism”, ”anti-capitalist” and ”anti-white”.
Splits in the African National Congress during local elections continue to plague the Durban township of Umlazi, with violent infighting resulting in at least three deaths. At the centre of the conflict is Bhekisasa Xulu, whose election as ANC ward councillor a group of residents unsuccessfully tried to stop.
The advocate for Pakistani national Khalid Mahmood Rashid said this week he plans to subpoena all those involved in Rashid’s alleged deportation after a court-imposed deadline for providing information on his whereabouts expires on Monday.
A powerful earthquake rocked Indonesia’s main island of Java on Saturday, killing at least 3 000 people, injuring thousands more and causing mass destruction. Many could not escape in time and were buried under the rubble of collapsed buildings or struck by flying rocks and debris as the temblor devastated towns and villages cities across the south of the island.
Thirty-one people died in hospital following the explosion of a tanker truck in northern Benin, bringing the total dead to more than sixty, a local hospital official said on Friday. The accident occurred late on Wednesday, when a tanker truck transporting fuel to Mali overturned near the town of Porga, around 500km north of Benin’s commercial capital, Cotonou.
Just how much time former Enron chiefs Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling spend in prison could hinge on how much of the more than -billion lost in the company’s crash is deemed their responsibility. Under federal sentencing guidelines, the felons easily face more than 20 years in prison if investor loss tied to their actions exceeds -million or more.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has always been given a warm welcome in the United States, where he is seen as a doggedly loyal, eloquent ally. But on this, possibly his last trip to Washington as prime minister, the affection seemed to be accompanied with sympathy.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) should explain why it postponed a documentary on President Thabo Mbeki scheduled to be screened last week. This was the view of the Democratic Alliance and the Freedom of Expression Institute, which issued separate statements on Friday.
Arcelor, the pan-European steel group, on Friday torpedoed Mittal’s latest hostile takeover bid by buying Russia’s Severstal in an agreed €13-billion deal designed to create an ”unrivalled global champion” out of reach of its Indian-owned predator.