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/ 16 February 2006
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has welcomed the life sentence handed down on Thursday to the man who raped and murdered HIV-positive TAC activist Lorna Mlofane. Cape High Court judge Dumisani Zondi sentenced Ncedile Ntumbukane to life in prison for the murder in December 2003, and a concurrent ten years for the rape, the TAC said.
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/ 16 February 2006
An increased budget for land restitution and distribution could be used to finalise land claims at market-related prices, the Transvaal Agricultural Union of South Africa said on Thursday. Finance Minister Trevor Manuel on Wednesday tabled an estimated R3-billion increase in the land reform Budget over the next three years.
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/ 16 February 2006
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has urged the public not to vote for local government election candidates who were inactive in the fight against HIV/Aids. ”If candidates do not support testing for HIV or Aids, don’t vote for them. If candidates don’t support the use of condoms, don’t vote for them,” said TAC chairperson Zackie Achmat.
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/ 16 February 2006
Relatives of the original composer of <i>The Lion Sleeps Tonight</i> have dropped a lawsuit against Disney after settling for an undisclosed sum of money with a United States music publishing house. The family of the late Solomon Linda, who composed the original Zulu tune for the song, was claiming R10-million in damages from the entertainment giant.
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/ 16 February 2006
A federal judge on Tuesday ordered California to reformulate the lethal-injection method used to kill condemned inmates, saying the original might be unconstitutionally painful. United States District Judge Jeremy Fogel refused to stop the February 21 execution of Michael Morales in San Quentin State Prison, but ruled it can proceed only if a quick-killing drug cocktail were used.
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/ 16 February 2006
China has defended its internet censorship policies, saying its rules follow international norms and claims no one has been detained for writing online content. China is no different from Western nations, whose criticisms smack of ”double standards”, said Liu Zhengrong, deputy chief of the Internet Affairs Bureau.
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/ 16 February 2006
When Justin Mason moved from Ireland to the United States, he wanted to take his cat — so, as required under the Pet Passport cross-border travel scheme, he had him microchipped. The Pet Passport scheme, which was introduced in 2004, relies on RFID (radio frequency identification) chips to make it work. But the reality is a dog’s dinner.
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/ 16 February 2006
At least seven people have died of dehydration in Somalia over the past month as severe water shortages from a killer regional drought force many to drink their own urine. Oxfam International said communities in southern and central Somalia were living in searing 40°C heat with only three glasses of water a day per person for drinking, washing and cooking.
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/ 16 February 2006
Capturing market share in emerging countries is vital, according to telecommunications operators who relentlessly plugged their third-generation (3G) mobile phone technology at a four-day 3GSM World Congress in Spain. All are out for a slice of the global pie which is set to comprise three billion cellphone users by 2008/2010 compared with about two billion at the end of 2005.
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/ 16 February 2006
Hungary’s main opposition party, Fidesz, said on Thursday that it had made a "serious mistake" in hacking into the server of the governing Socialist party ahead of the April general elections. "Whichever one of our enthusiastic staff did this committed a serious mistake, but the world will not come to an end," said Fidesz campaign chief Antal Rogan.