The so-called Oilgate scandal has been laid to rest as it relates to the government, government communications head Joel Netshitenzhe said on Wednesday. He said the Cabinet noted and accepted Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana’s report on the matter, in which Mushwana said he found no evidence of wrongdoing in the Oilgate matter.
The Cabinet has confirmed South Africa’s willingness, in principle, to assist Zimbabwe, including providing a loan facility in relation to Zimbabwe’s obligations to the International Monetary Fund. Such assistance should benefit the Zimbabwean people as a whole, said government communications head Joel Netshitenzhe.
Army and police patrolled the streets of Khartoum on Wednesday, seeking to prevent a third day of riots as the United Nations said it will take part in an investigation into the death of popular leader John Garang in a helicopter crash, which sparked the violence.
A group of army officers in Mauritania announced the overthrow of President Maaoya Sid’Ahmed Taya on Wednesday. Earlier, troops took control of the national radio and television stations and seized a building housing the army chief of staff’s headquarters while the president was out of the country.
The Cabinet on Wednesday approved the establishment of the National Water Resource Infrastructure Agency, aimed at ensuring long-term water security for South Africa. The agency will take responsibility for developing and operating South Africa’s major national dams and water-transfer schemes.
A Nigerian Islamic court granted bail on Wednesday to two alleged homosexuals who face the death penalty and whose case has once more drawn international attention to their country’s rights record. The pair were arrested by police in June after witnesses alleged that they had been having sex in a public toilet.
Media and entertainment giant Time Warner said on Wednesday it plunged into the red after setting aside -billion to cover shareholder lawsuits stemming from its 2001 merger with America Online. Time Warner posted a loss of -million in the second quarter to June, from a net profit of -million in the same period last year.
Fourteen marines were killed on Wednesday in one of the deadliest attacks on United States forces since the invasion of Iraq as an American freelance reporter was gunned down in the relatively calm south. Meanwhile, Iraq’s panel drafting the new Constitution met again in Baghdad to discuss the finer details of the basic law.
North Korean, Russian, United States and South Korean delegates discussing ways to scrap North Korea’s nuclear-weapons programme returned to the main talks venue late on Wednesday, fuelling speculation they would meet overnight to try to agree on basic principles for ending the three-year stand-off.
It is an unusual spat, to say the least: four places in Scotland all vying to be the recognised home of someone not even due to be born for another 200-plus years. Nonetheless, a spat has broken out over boasting rights to fictional <i>Star Trek</i> engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott following the death last month of the actor who played him.