For the first time since the Cold War, global military spending exceeded -trillion in 2004 — nearly half of it by the United States, a prominent European think tank said on Tuesday. As military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and the war on terror continue, the world spent ,035-trillion (R6,89-trillion) on defence costs during the year.
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has applied to the Constitutional Court in relation to her fraud conviction, the court confirmed on Tuesday. This follows the dismissal by the Pretoria High Court and the Supreme Court of Appeals for leave to appeal her conviction on 43 counts of fraud and her suspended sentence.
”When Sandi Majali wrote cheques after getting a multimillion-rand advance from the state oil company, two of the first recipients were relatives of Cabinet ministers.” Thus starts the Mail & Guardian‘s follow-up to its ”Oilgate” exposé, which a Johannesburg High Court interdict kept out of print two weeks ago. On Tuesday, the court lifted the interdict.
A bulk carrier ship carrying a consignment of logs from West Africa was sinking off the coast of East London on Tuesday afternoon. The National Port Authority’s East London spokesperson, Terry Taylor, said they had received a call on Tuesday that the 180m Kiperousa was taking on water in her engine room.
General Motors plans to eliminate 25 000 jobs in the United States by 2008 and to close plants as part of a strategy to revive its struggling North American operations. On Tuesday, chairperson and chief executive Rick Wagoner said the capacity and job cuts will generate annual savings of roughly $2,5-billion.
The Nobel Prize-winning writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn has lamented the state of Russian politics and government in a rare televised interview in the Russian Federation, saying it will take many years before the country has anything resembling democracy.
The African National Congress has denied claims that the loan of trucks and buses for its election campaign last year was irregular. The ANC said in a statement ”for the record” that the ANC was loaned 10 trucks and two buses by the MAN Truck and Bus South Africa during its election campaign.
United States President George Bush’s successor as the governor of Texas was embroiled in an abortion row on Monday after signing a Bill which imposed stricter limits on late-term terminations and parental consent for minors who wanted the procedure.
Not being able to get an international line can be annoying for anyone. But when it’s 4am and the person with the hotel telephone in his hand is Russell Crowe, it’s probably time to duck. The 41-year-old actor was arrested and charged with assault early on Monday morning after allegedly throwing a telephone at a hotel employee.
Parts of the European Union Constitution could be introduced without a referendum in the United Kingdom, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on Tuesday, a day after suspending plans for the treaty to be put to a popular vote. Straw, speaking on BBC radio, also tried to appease opponents of the Constitution.