Kenyan authorities on Friday destroyed about 1,2 tonnes of cocaine seized in 2004, a record haul that had become the subject of corruption and evidence-tampering allegations. The drugs were incinerated at a medical research facility in Nairobi under tight security following a March 21 court order issued on the request of the director of public prosecution Keraiko Tobiko.
Zimbabwe’s arms cache saga is ”far from over” even though the state has dropped charges against eight of the nine accused, a cabinet minister was reported as saying on Friday. ”People should not read anything into the state’s withdrawal of charges against [opposition] Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) activists before plea,” said the Manica Post newspaper, quoting Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi.
The Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Friday granted bail of R20 000 to Riaz Kadwa, the son of murdered Park Lane Clinic plastic surgeon Mohamed Anwar Kadwa. Mohamed Kadwa (50) and his wife Muneira (49) were shot dead in the bedroom of their home in Crown North, Mayfair, on October 5 last year.
It’s safe to say that the Flaming Lips are a world unto their own. Their concerts are a psychedelic swirl of balloons, animal costumes and strobe lights — and that’s saying nothing about the fake blood. After the Lips’ last album, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, its new opus, At War with the Mystics is comparatively normal.
Portia Simpson Miller — popularly known as ”Sista P” – pledged to rid Jamaica of violent crime plaguing the country, root out corruption and protect human rights as she was sworn in as the Caribbean nation’s first female prime minister. Born in the rural parish of St Catherine, Simpson Miller became a long-serving member of Parliament.
The Auckland Blues answered their critics with a 30-17 win over the Northern Bulls in Auckland on Friday to produce their third win from seven matches and put a dent in the Bulls’ hopes of making the Super 14 top four. The inconsistent Blues have been under the microscope in the past week, with a host of rugby brains called in to help exorcise the ineptness that has plagued their season.
Bus driver Peter Mwathi pulls some dirty bank notes from his shirt pocket and slides them into the hand of a police offer who has pulled him over. An untrained eye would have missed the transaction, which looks like a friendly handshake, but Kenyans are used to kickbacks and bribes. A few passengers murmur and grumble.
The race to set the industry standard for high-definition DVDs swept into Japan’s stores Friday as Toshiba put on sale its first next-generation player. Supporters of the HD DVD format pushed by Toshiba and NEC are vying with the rival Blu-ray format, led by Panasonic and Sony, in a replay of the VHS-Betamax battle between two types of video cassette tapes in the late 1970s.
A man has won 600 yuan () compensation from a clothes store for emotional distress after the shop sold him a T-shirt that said in English, ”This Bitch Bites”, a media report said on Friday. The unidentified man, who did not speak English, took action after his girlfriend told him why people laughed at him in the street, the Hong Kong edition of the China Daily reported.
Israel suspects journalists, particularly press photographers, of being behind the spread of deadly bird flu in the Jewish state, an agriculture ministry official told Agence France-Presse. "It’s one of our working hypotheses," the official said, asking not be identified. "Bird flu can be transmitted on clothing, footwear, the wheels of cars and even on cameras," the official added.