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Judge Hillary Squires questioned on Wednesday the true nature of fraud and corruption accused Schabir Shaik’s friendship with Deputy President Jacob Zuma. ”Genuine friendship would not have resorted to such blatant advertising,” the judge said during his second day of judgement.
Moped-taxi drivers in the mainly Muslim northern Nigerian city of Kano carried leafy branches on their bikes on Tuesday in a symbol of protest at an imminent ban on carrying female passengers. Kano’s governor postponed a ceremony at which he was to impose the ban, in line with his administration’s interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.
Ethiopian and Sudanese tribal fighters attacked and killed nine people in separate cattle raids in Kenya, officials said on Tuesday. Toposa fighters from southern Sudan gunned down five members of one family, including two schoolchildren, during a raid on Monday in the Turkana district of north-western Kenya.
The World Economic Forum’s 15th annual Africa Economic Summit has opened in Cape Town with a strong call by business to support the proposals contained in the recent Commission for Africa report for promoting economic growth and development across the continent.
The Dutch voted on Wednesday in their first national referendum, choosing whether to accept a proposed European Union Constitution. Polls indicated The Netherlands could join France in rejecting the historic document, which will leave Europe’s leaders without a clear back-up plan for the charter.
The parents of HIV-infected children tried to storm a court on Tuesday when a judge announced the postponement of a ruling on the death sentence appeal of six medics, including five Bulgarians and a Palestinian, convicted of infecting 400 children with the virus that causes HIV/Aids.
A conservative Christian group has launched a boycott against Ford Motor Company, saying the second-largest United States automaker has given thousands of dollars to gay rights groups, offers benefits to same-sex couples and actively recruits gay employees.
A suicide bomb attack on the funeral of a leading cleric killed by suspected Taliban militants left at least 24 people dead in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar on Wednesday, including one of the country’s top police officers, witnesses and officials said. Many other people were wounded when the blast ripped through a mosque.
The government is ”paranoid and overreacting” in enlisting the help of the National Intelligence Agency and bringing sedition charges against protesters trying to highlight their plight, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said on Wednesday. ”The government seems to want to criminalise them,” said a Cosatu spokesperson.
The JSE Securities Exchange (JSE) was firmer at midday on Wednesday, with a softer rand giving heavyweight resources and dual-listed stocks a lift. By 11.57am, the all-share index added 0,6%. Resources rallied 1,42%, the gold-mining index jumped 2,49% and the platinum-mining index perked up 0,88%.