A South African battalion commander will probably be sent home after alleged involvement in sexual misconduct in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), News24 reported on Tuesday. The South African Defence Force said the United Nations was investigating charges against ”a member of the South African contingent in the DRC”.
Prosecutors are asking a judge to permit evidence at Phil Spector’s murder trial that the record producer has a history of pulling guns on women, according to court filings. The prosecution motion lists nine occasions dating to 1972 when Spector allegedly pointed a gun at someone.
After almost 14 years the Masterbond curatorship was concluded by an order of the Cape High Court on Monday. The three Masterbond curators said in a statement their appointment had been cancelled by the court order, subject to certain conditions.
Operations at Spoornet are ”settling down” and the rail utility is on track with its planned improvements, Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin said on Monday. Speaking at Spoornet’s offices in Johannesburg, he told journalists that Spoornet was moving forward after years of under-investment.
Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa on Monday announced the department’s plan to encourage the formation of co-operatives as part of government’s job creation strategy. ”Internationally we have seen how co-operatives are an important part of many economies and the contribution they make to society,” said Mpahlwa.
Most South Africans are proud to be South African, but race relations remain fraught, the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) has found. The findings, in the council’s <i>South African Social Attitudes Survey</i>, raise the question of whether an overarching national identity really matters for the formation of a united, non-racist society, said the HSRC’s Marlene Roefs.
Relations between Japan and South Korea neared breaking point on Monday over renewed claims by Tokyo to sovereignty over a cluster of uninhabited islands in the Sea of Japan. Faced with continued violent protests in Seoul — during which two women cut off their fingers — Japan recalled its ambassador to South Korea, Toshiyuki Takano.
Gay rights groups in California were celebrating victory in the latest round of the protracted struggle over gay marriage on Monday after a judge in San Francisco ruled that the state’s ban on homosexual marriage was unconstitutional. ”The denial of marriage to same-sex couples appears impermissibly arbitrary,” said Richard Kramer, a San Francisco superior court judge.
Germany’s Green party environment minister said on Monday that Britain should emulate Germany’s example and build thousands more wind turbines if it wanted to prevent climate change. Britain has agreed to increase dramatically its own wind farm programme, as a means of achieving 10% of energy needs from renewable sources by 2010.
The ordeal began with a gun in the ribs in the middle of the night. By morning, after a pancake breakfast, the man accused of killing four in an Atlanta courthouse rampage was offering to hang curtains in his hostage’s flat, and she was an American hero.