Parliament started to suspect that something was wrong with the travel-voucher system at the end of 2002 when its finance staff realised that one MP, whose home was in Vrede, was "supposedly" repeatedly travelling to Umtata, said Speaker Baleka Mbete on Tuesday during the debate on the so-called Travelgate scam.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=121014">Scam probe ‘taking too long'</a>
Judgement was reserved on Tuesday in an urgent High Court application by Disney Enterprises to set aside an attachment order against more than 240 of its trademarks registered in South Africa. The trademarks include well-known images such as Donald Duck and Mickey and Minnie Mouse.
South African media group Caxton and CTP Publishers and Printers (Caxton) reported a 15,6% increase in diluted headline earnings per share from 64 cents to 74 cents for the year ended June. The group on Tuesday said it has declared a dividend of 35 cents per share compared with 30 cents for the previous comparable period.
Noisy, low-flying helicopters, the bane of weekend walkers seeking a little peace and tranquillity within the borders of the Table Mountain National Park, may soon be a thing of the past. Draft legislation currently before Parliament aims to limit the height at which an aircraft can fly over the park, or any other protected area in South Africa, ”to a level of 2 500 feet above the highest point”.
On Sunday evening Karim al-Zuheiri was watching Iraq’s footballers play Australia at the Olympics. There had been no power for weeks in Najaf’s old city where he lives; and so — ignoring the shellfire from the nearby Imam Ali shrine — Zuheiri hooked up his television to a car battery.
The former Zimbabwean Cabinet minister Eddison Zvobgo, who has died aged 68 after a long illness, was a founder of the ruling Zanu-PF party. But though a spokesperson referred to his death as a great loss to country and party, Zvobgo had become a controversial figure in recent years, having led some challenges within Zanu-PF to the autocratic rule of President Robert Mugabe.
United States President George Bush stepped into the row over his presidential opponent’s war record on Monday, declaring John Kerry had served ”admirably” in Vietnam and calling for an end to all political attack advertisements sponsored by non-party groups.
South African courts should not decide whether a South African-born fugitive from justice had received a fair trial in Canada, the Constitutional Court heard on Tuesday. The court is hearing a case that is considered crucial to whether people sentenced in their absence in other countries will be able to find sanctuary in South Africa.
A 29-year-old Muslim women in the western Indian state of Maharastra was divorced by her husband over the telephone, it was reported on Tuesday. Shabana Sayyed said her husband divorced her by saying ”talaq, talaq, talaq” thrice when she called him up from her parent’s house last week, the Asian Age newspaper reported.
A Chinese court has ruled against two students who sued their high school in Shanghai for breach of privacy after authorities broadcast a video of them kissing, state press reported on Tuesday. The court decided that Fuxing High School had the right to monitor student behaviour with hidden cameras.