Former Enron chief executives Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay were found guilty on Thursday of fraud and conspiracy charges related to the spectacular 2001 meltdown of the energy giant. Skilling (52) was found guilty of 19 of 28 counts of fraud and conspiracy and faces a maximum penalty of 185 years in jail.
A hard-line Iranian group on Thursday announced the creation of a new "battalion" of "martyrdom seekers" — or suicide attackers — ready to carry out operations against targets. The group, called the Committee for the Glorification of Martyrs of the Global Islamic Movement, made the announcement at Tehran’s main cemetery where hundreds of supporters had gathered.
This week the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> reveals National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi’s links to shadowy figures associated with slain businessman Brett Kebble. Our investigation, which began before Kebble’s death, has revealed a web of relationships connecting Selebi to Clinton Nassif, a Kebble security operative, and Glenn Agliotti, who worked with Kebble on a series of hush-hush projects.
Heavily armed gunmen fought pitched battles in the streets of the lawless Somali capital on Thursday, rocking the city with a fresh surge in the deadliest violence it has seen in years. Islamic militia and fighters loyal to a United States-backed warlord alliance pounded Mogadishu with heavy fire, sending the death toll soaring.
South Africa’s producer price index (PPI) rose by 5,5% year-on-year in April from a 5,4% increase in March, Statistics South Africa said on Thursday. Commented Mike Schussler, economist at T-Sec: "It’s a bit higher than I expected and I suspect it will have a negative impact on the bond market. But I don’t think it’s the end of the world."
Ugandan troops have killed a gunman who shot dead at least 10 civilians this week in a bloody rampage at a camp for war-displaced people in northern Uganda, the military said on Thursday. Soldiers had been looking for the man, a militia member responsible for guarding the Ogwete camp for internally displaced people, since he fled the area after Monday’s killing spree.
Sinai Bedouins have pledged their assistance to Egyptian security forces in their search for people suspected of involvement in deadly attacks on Red Sea tourist resorts in the last two years, the official news agency Mena reported. ”There is an agreement between all the tribe leaders of central Sinai to help the security forces,” said Abdallah Juhama, one of the elders of Sinai’s Tarabin tribe.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) voiced fears on Thursday that South Africa and the African National Congress are drifting towards a dictatorship. ”Dictatorship never announces its arrival,” Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said in Johannesburg. ”It won’t, like drum majorettes, beat drums and parade down the street to announce it has arrived.”
Only weeks after warning that Zimbabwean inflation had topped 1 000%, the Imara financial-services group has now alerted investors to the fact that the figure is fast approaching 2 000%. John Legat, Harare-based CEO of Imara Asset Management, gave the 1 000% alert in mid-April, with official confirmation coming by the end of the month.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas gave Fatah and Hamas a deadline on Thursday to end their deadly rivalry or else he would call a referendum, which could lead to a new national-unity government. Abbas’s shock announcement came on the first day of cross-party talks aimed at drawing a line under divisions between his Fatah movement and the Islamists of Hamas.