Hong Kong’s acting Chief Executive, Donald Tsang, said on Tuesday he is prepared to face a legal challenge over the decision to let the territory’s new leader serve only a two-year term. Tsang said the government is determined to see a new leader installed on July 10 following chief executive Tung Chee-hwa’s early resignation last week.
One of four Waterkloof youths accused of killing a man in a park in 2001 has denied stabbing the man. Christoff Becker (19) also denied in his Pretoria Regional Court trial on Tuesday that he or co-accused Gert van Schalkwyk was involved in an assault on another man the same day.
Black economic empowerment in agriculture (AgriBEE) will also benefit white farmers and companies who become involved with it, the National African Farmers’ Union (Nafu) said on Tuesday. ”AgriBEE is voluntary and incentive-driven. This will benefit farmers and companies which choose to get involved by helping black farmers,” said Nafu’s BigMan Maloa.
Russia’s secret services are shielding Bosnian Serbs wanted by the war crimes tribunal in The Hague for atrocities committed during the Bosnian war, including the massacre at Srebrenica, where more than 8 000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered.
The battle for the streets of Lebanon reached new heights on Monday when hundreds of thousands of anti-Syria protesters, some with Lebanese flags painted on their faces, swamped the centre of Beirut. Few had any doubt that it was the biggest demonstration the city had ever seen, or was likely ever to see.
The Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, said on Monday that he expected Hamas and other armed factions to announce a full ceasefire in the conflict with Israel at a meeting beginning in Cairo on Tuesday. Abbas said that if the ceasefire is agreed, he wants Israel to begin full negotiations over the creation of a Palestinian state.
Scratching her swollen and shoeless feet after digging up her potato field, Roberta Centeño looks exhausted but says she has plenty of energy for the struggle ahead. ”We blocked roads before and we will do it again,” says the Aymara Indian mother of 12. ”It is the only way the government ever listens, they want to just think about the rich.”
Bullets have been found in each of the remains of the two Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) cadres exhumed in Piet Retief on Monday. National Prosecution Authority spokesperson Makhosini Nkosi said on Tuesday that the findings brought them closer to the conclusion of the case.
The United Nations believes that more than 180 000 people may have died in the troubled Darfur region in western Sudan. According to the UN’s top emergency coordination official, Jan Egeland, the number refers to people who have died of malnutrition and disease, and does not cover those who have been killed in the conflict.
South African banking group Absa, which is the target for a takeover by the United Kingdom’s Barclays group, confirmed on Tuesday that it has pulled out of talks to acquire a 49% stake in the state-owned Zambia National Commercial Bank. Analysts believe that the scuppering of the deal has put the Zambian government in a bit of quandary.