For Buford Posey, a white man raised in Philadelphia, Mississippi, World War II had a civilising influence. ”When I was coming up in Mississippi I never knew it was against the law to kill a black man,” he says. ”I learned that when I went in the army. I was 17 years old. When they told me I thought they were joking.”
Eighteen of the world’s poorest countries will have their debts to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund wiped out as part of a -billion package agreed on Saturday by the G7 leading economies. The deal, brokered by the British Chancellor Gordon Brown, will save countries such as Mozambique and Ethiopia a total of -billion in debt payments over the next 10 years.
Uganda’s Constitutional Court on Friday rejected an appeal by death-row inmates to outlaw capital punishment, but ruled that laws requiring the imposition of the sentence are illegal and must be rewritten. More than 400 death-row inmates brought their unprecedented appeal to the Constitutional Court in January.
President Thabo Mbeki has assured incoming Chief Justice Pius Langa and his deputy, Judge Dikgang Moseneke, of the African National Congress’s commitment to judicial independence. ”We will, in word and deed, respect their right and duty to carry out their tasks as part of an independent judiciary,” he said on Friday.
A spam e-mail that claims Michael Jackson has made a suicide attempt masks a ”Trojan horse” virus that infects computers, a British-headquartered software security firm said on Friday. The e-mail says Jackson made a ”suicidal aattempt” (sic) and invites the recipient to click on a link to see a supposed suicide note.
The United States trade deficit rose by a modest 6,3% to -billion in April, despite record sales of exports, including civilian aircraft, the government said on Friday. Wall Street was expecting the shortfall to widen to -billion, compared with a revised ,6-billion in March.
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) is to broaden an internal probe to include staff members leaking ”incorrect information” to the media on the fate of Deputy President Jacob Zuma. The NPA denied a Mail & Guardian report that it was preparing to charge Zuma following the fraud and corruption conviction of Schabir Shaik.
One person was killed and at least five others seriously injured on Wednesday in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, when an escalator suddenly started moving and they were caught in the machinery, a hospital official said. Six people were in intensive care, a doctor said — including one whose arms were torn off at the shoulder.
The United States on Friday expressed its ”unequivocal” support for embattled Philippine President Gloria Arroyo and said there appears to be no real danger of a coup despite rumours. Arroyo has placed military and police forces on full alert as rumours swirl of a plot against her, fuelled by allegations she rigged last year’s election.
A millionaire British businessman, Friedhelm Eronat, was named on Thursday night as the purchaser of oil rights in the Darfur region of Sudan, where the regime is accused of war crimes and where millions of tribespeople are alleged to have been forced to flee, amid mass rapes or murders.