The chief of police in Gujrat, the Pakistani city where two South Africans have been arrested along with a senior al-Qaeda terrorist, said on Wednesday maps of South African cities were found among items seized after the raid.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=119832">’No comment’ on terror claims</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=119792">’Terror’ pair under lock and key</a>
Tens of thousands of people marched on United Nations offices in Khartoum on Wednesday to protest last week’s Security Council resolution on Darfur, rejecting any foreign intervention in the war-torn province. One contingent of youths was wearing black shirts and red headbands marked ”Martyrs Brigades”.
Former housing minister Sankie Mthemba-Mahanyele is to ask the Constitutional Court for special leave to appeal a court ruling that she may not sue the Mail & Guardian for publishing a defamatory story about her. In a statement on Wednesday, Mthemba-Mahanyele welcomed a decision by the Supreme Court of Appeal that politicians did have standing to sue for defamation.
Thousands of flood victims in Bangladesh could die of disease unless urgent precautions are taken, the official news agency BSS on Wednesday quoted relief workers as saying. Relief workers predicted a ”severe” health situation, ”likely to claim the lives of thousands unless urgent precautions were taken”, BSS said.
At least 14 Iraqis were killed and 26 wounded in a roadside bomb blast and fierce clashes on Wednesday between Iraqi police and insurgents in the main northern city of Mosul, medics and police said. The fighting erupted at about midday local time south-west of Mosul on the west bank of the Tigris River.
Four Free State department of home affairs officials and a policeman appeared in the Ficksburg Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday on corruption charges, Free State police said. The five were arrested on Monday, bringing to 39 the number of people arrested since an investigation began into corruption at home affairs offices in the province.
Market participants have the impression that insider trading in South African has decreased, according to a report released on Wednesday. ”The new regime has changed prevailing attitudes to insider trading, resulted in new policies and approaches among listed corporates and their advisers,” said the chairperson of the Insider Trading Directorate.
While the police and the government declined to comment on Wednesday on claims that two citizens held in Pakistan were plotting attacks on South African tourist destinations, the Democratic Alliance urged the authorities to keep the public properly informed of any real danger.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=119792">’Terror’ pair under lock and key</a>
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/pd.asp?ao=119782">’Terror’ pair were to ‘attack Jo’burg'</a>
The current strength of the South African rand is unsustainable, according to private wealth management company Citadel’s chief investment officer, Dave Mohr. "The four factors that have resulted in a more than 50% appreciation in the rand over the past two-and-a-half years have all reversed over the past three months," he said.
The trade union Solidarity on Wednesday said it has requested the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) to appoint an independent arbiter to deal with the retrenchment process at dual listed telecommunications giant Telkom.