A group of suspected mercenaries in a Zimbabwean jail might have to wait until Monday for the outcome of an application to appeal the men’s deportation to South Africa. Their lawyer, Alwyn Griebenow, said Zimbabwe’s chief justice reserved judgement on the matter, which was heard on Wednesday morning.
Fiery Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille clashed with the lawyer of former ID Western Cape leader Lennit Max when Max’s disciplinary hearing resumed on Wednesday. She repeatedly told the lawyer, Leon van Rensburg, to ”keep quiet” as he cross-examined her, and told him she was laughing at his ”silly remarks”.
The Constitutional Court reserved judgement on Wednesday on the Department of Health’s application relating to disputed medicine-pricing regulations, without ruling immediately on which regulations are currently in force. The department had asked the court for leave to appeal a Supreme Court of Appeal ruling that declared its new regulations invalid.
Danish intelligence services on Tuesday said they have launched a full-blown advertising campaign to recruit spies capable of digging up information on international terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. The Scandinavian country is looking for ways to expand its own ability to gather sensitive information.
European soothsayers have thrown their weight behind United Nations prosecutors in their stand-off with the Croatian government over fugitive war crimes suspect Ante Gotovina, saying he is hiding in or near Croatian territory, a report said on Wednesday. Five clairvoyants were consulted by the <i>Globus</i> weekly.
The information and communications technology (ICT) charter’s working group chairperson, advocate Dali Mpofu, on Wednesday dismissed rumours that the camp is in crisis, instead arguing that nothing has changed. "There is no crisis. We are not restarting the whole process of drawing up the charter again; that is ridiculous," he said.
Burundi’s last remaining rebel group fired six mortar bombs at the capital overnight, hitting the area around the presidential palace but causing no casualties, the army said on Wednesday. Army spokesperson Major Adolphe Munirakiza said the National Liberation Forces bombarded the Kiriri district with 60mm mortars at around 11pm.
A diamond mine collapsed in the southern Democratic Republic of Congo and killed up to 40 people, authorities said on Wednesday, adding the news had taken weeks to emerge from the remote area. Governor Clement Kanku said he had scant details because of the remote location of the mine, in Kampangala, a town about 135km southeast of Tshikapa, on the border with Angola.
Another R400-million will be spent to upgrade Johannesburg’s electrical infrastructure, a city councillor said on Wednesday. This is in addition to R500-million already invested in the past two financial years to end the scourge of power cuts, said Brian Hlongwe, a councillor responsible for municipal services.
Shoko Asahara, whose charisma once drew thousands to his doomsday cult, has turned into a ”doll” in his decade of detention since the Tokyo subway attack, wearing diapers and mumbling incomprehensibly, his daughters say after a series of prison visits.