The United Nations organisers of Afghanistan’s first democratic presidential election admitted at the weekend that they expect next Saturday’s polling to be be marred by fraud, intimidation and violence. David Avery, chief of operations for the joint electoral management body, predicted that with more than 100Â 000 staff who had not seen an election before, it ”will not look pretty”.
Foreign interest in South Africa’s plans to develop a small, safe, clean and cheap nuclear pebble bed modular reactor (PBMR) is high, says Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin. ”There are constant requests for information from different governments, utilities and research institutions on the PBMR technology,” he said in a written reply, tabled on Monday, to a parliamentary question.
Sudanese President Omer Hassan al-Bashir has opposed calls by United Nations personnel to grant autonomy to the war-torn Darfur region. "I will "strongly oppose any idea by outsiders at implementing the self-rule model in Darfur," al-Bashir warned in a meeting organised by the Sudanese Women General Union on Sunday.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-Africa&ao=123017">PAP to send mission to Darfur</a>
A former in-house Enron accountant who signed off on a year-end 1999 alleged sham sale of several barges to Merrill Lynch told prosecutors he thought the deal was wrong from the beginning. Now he awaits questioning from the lawyer representing his former boss, Sheila Kahanek, who is one of six defendants on trial for fraud and conspiracy stemming from the deal.
A Muldersdrift man arrested on child pornography charges was on his way to the Krugersdorp Magistrate’s Court for his first appearance on Monday following his arrest last week, police said. Police started investigating the man when they were given a video tape about two months ago.
The Bush administration knew as early as mid-2001 that a central plank of its argument about Saddam Hussein’s alleged weapons of mass destruction was regarded by its own nuclear experts as probably untrue, it was reported in the New York Times on Sunday.
Deputy-President Jacob Zuma is ”unfazed” by media reports on Sunday that a KPMG report would show an ”extensive financial relationship” between him and his financial adviser, Schabir Shaik. Shaik would go on a corruption trial that may drag on for months in the Durban High Court from Monday next week.
Shaik trial: ‘Zuma was bribed’
Doctors in Germany have rebuilt a man’s face after growing a new jaw on his back. By the fourth week after receiving the pioneering transplant the patient was able to enjoy his first solid meal for nine years. The 56-year-old man tucked into a hearty dinner of bread and sausages in a hospital in Kiel, Germany.
The death toll from floods unleashed by Tropical Storm Jeanne rose sharply to nearly 2 000 people, with many still missing, as officials said they found hundreds more bodies in Haiti’s devastated northwestern region. The new toll stands at 1 970 dead and 884 missing, said Dieufort Deslorges, a spokesperson for Haiti’s civil protection agency.
Ariel Sharon said on Sunday that an assault on the Gaza strip that has claimed more than 60 lives and injured 250 people — the bloodiest of the intifada — will be expanded until it puts an end to Hamas rocket strikes against Israel. At least eight people were killed on Sunday, most of them insurgents.
World silence ‘encourages’ Sharon