South Africa’s ruling African National Congress will convene a special meeting of its national executive committee (NEC) solely to address the conclusions contained in the Inspector General (IG) of Intelligence’s report on the ongoing fraudulent e-mail scandal, according to ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama.
The JSE continued its journey into uncharted territory on Monday morning, propelled by higher precious metals prices. Media reports surrounding AngloGold Ashanti, which sparked speculation of consolidation in the gold mining sector, gave the move added momentum.
Italy’s Loris Capirossi, on a Ducati, won the season-opening Spanish motorcycling Grand Prix here on Sunday ahead of home hope Daniel Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden of the United States. Defending world champion Valentino Rossi of Italy crashed on the first bend, narrowly avoiding serious injury before finishing the race down the field.
Striking Telkom workers were to march from the Union Buildings to the company’s Pretoria headquarters on Monday to deliver a memorandum of grievances. ”We will be gathering at the Union Buildings at around 11am and marching to deliver the memorandum at lunch time,” said Communication Workers’ Union spokesperson Mfanafuthi Sithebe.
Australia, Britain and New Zealand may play a role in securing the piracy-prone Malacca Strait but the sovereignty of bordering states would be safeguarded, Malaysia’s defence minister said on Monday. "They are interested in the situation in the Straits of Malacca," Najib Razak said after talks with the armed forces chiefs of Australia, Britain, New Zealand, and Singapore.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair caused a stir back home on Monday after suggesting he may have made a mistake by stating publicly that he would not stand for a fourth term in office. Blair’s remarks were made in an interview with Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio.
A former Bush administration aide has resigned from his new role as a blogger for the Washington Post after evidence emerged that much of his previous journalistic work had been the result of plagiarism. Ben Domenech (24) had been hired by the newspaper to write what he described as ”a blog for the majority of Americans”.
It was supposed to protect some of Germany’s most famous antique treasures. But on Sunday embarrassed officials admitted that a security camera on the roof of Berlin’s Pergamon Museum had instead been filming the Chancellor, Angela Merkel. The camera overlooks Merkel’s private flat.
A nine-year-old mixed-race girl has been beaten and stabbed in the face and neck in St Petersburg, officials said on Sunday, only four days after a teenager was acquitted of the murder of another nine-year-old girl, from Tajikistan, in the city two years ago. The two cases have highlighted racial tensions in Russia’s cities, where immigration and nationalism are on the rise.
An Afghan court decided on Sunday to stall a controversial case against a Christian facing the death penalty for refusing to renounce his faith, and is likely to release him soon while it reviews the evidence. Under a storm of Western criticism the Afghan government has scrambled for a way to end the prosecution of Abdul Rahman (41) who converted to Christianity in Pakistan 16 years ago.