Lawyers for the defence intend to produce evidence that some of the mercenaries accused of plotting to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea have bought weapons from Zimbabwe in the past. The defence team of the 70 men arrested in Harare in March will contest all the charges against them — including violations of Zimbabwean security, firearms, immigration and aviation laws.
A modern world might find it impossible to comprehend the level of racism in the United States in 1910 when the first black world heavyweight boxing champion, Jack Johnson, inflicted a beating on the so-called ”Great White Hope” Jim Jeffries, a former champion lured out of retirement to give Johnson the beating white society craved.
As he heard gunfire being exchanged between groups of Palestinian gunmen in the dispute over who should head the Palestinian police in Gaza, Ahmed Kaskin could only wonder at the cost of the ammunition and what the money could do for his family. If one of his six sons was drawing a policeman’s wage, he might have been more partisan.
Rape has been used as a weapon of war in many conflict situations. We have witnessed this in Africa in countries such as Rwanda, Burundi and, most recently, Sudan. ”During the day we were beaten and they were telling us: ‘You, the black women, we will exterminate you, you have no god.’ At night we were raped several times.” This testimony echoes that of hundreds of Sudanese refugees.
If any of the 150-strong South African Olympic team take to the competition halls, pools and fields in Athens feeling they are on their own, they obviously have not met their chef de mission, Hajera Kajee. Kajee is the first female to take up the all-important task of looking after the Olympic flock for the Games.
Never in the history of the Premiership have three sides been promoted from division one (now renamed the Coca-Cola Championship) with such a lack of fizz. Norwich, West Bromwich Albion, Crystal Palace. Poor lambs. All that work last season and, according to the bookies, they’re just relegation fodder.
Orlando Pirates are confident of beating Sable de Batie of Cameroon during the Confederation Cup in Yaounde on Sunday. Pirates beat Sable 4-2 during the first leg match played at Harry Oppenheimer Stadium in Orkney two weeks ago. However, the South African football giants will be without four influential players.
All Black prop Kees Meeuws said his team had gone back to basics in their forward play after a year of stagnation and the new regime will make a difference at Saturday’s Tri-Nations Test against South Africa in Christchurch. Meeuws said the renewed focus on improving their set piece under coach Graham Henry and assistants Steve Hansen and Wayne Smith had lifted the All Blacks to a significantly higher standard.
A series of seminars on the classical world, which have been going on for some time now at the University of Bologna, where I teach, has attracted hundreds of students, who listen to lectures and readings from texts with curiosity and enthusiasm. Maybe this is because the classics have always had something to tell us.
Former rebel leader Pierre Nkurunziza has an air about him of a man who always wears new shoes. He struts rather than walks — not surprisingly for a leader who claims to have more than 35 000 men under his command. At the Burundi peace talks in Pretoria this week his swagger was even more pronounced.