The only man to be convicted of participating in the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States walked free from a court in Hamburg on Wednesday after winning an appeal against his imprisonment. The German federal court dealt the Bush administration’s war on terror a blow when it released the 30-year-old Moroccan student, Mounir el Motassadeq.
The rate of deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rose by 2,1% last year as farmers encroached on the world’s largest jungle, the government said on Wednesday. Figures from Brazil’s environment ministry showed deforestation in the Amazon jumped to 14 672 square kilometres in 2003, from 14 371 square kilometres in 2002.
The Democratic Alliance says it is to notify the auditor general of an incident in which an Eastern Cape municipality allegedly paid over R3Â 000 for a lunch for an African National Congress election campaign team. DA provincial leader Athol Trollip said he had copies of invoices and a cheque made out by the Tsolwana municipality to back up the claim.
A South African man was killed during hostilities in Iraq, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday. Spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said the man was killed in Al-Kut in the south of Iraq. ”Circumstances that led to his death are being investigated,” he said.
The United States-led coalition entered the most dangerous phase yet of its occupation of Iraq on Wednesday night as the Sunni and Shia uprisings spread from Kirkuk in the north to Kut in the south.
Children trapped by poverty in South Africa’s poorest provinces are still being denied state support — despite President Thabo Mbeki’s promise last year that millions more children would be included in the social security net. Ineffective provincial administration is preventing poor children from benefiting from the extended Child Support Grant.
Still reeling from being found guilty by the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of invading a woman’s privacy, the SABC will now have to answer to the Commission on Gender Equality — and possibly the police. The complaints commission last week fined the public broadcaster R20 000 for airing a live SABC3 programme, <i>3 Talk</i>.
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>To win the election the African National Congress ruthlessly used its greatest competitive advantage over the other political parties in this election — massive, organised membership.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=40922">Special Report: Elections 2004</a>
"The farmer always carries a gun and sometimes, if a worker makes a mistake, he points the gun at the worker," says a worker on a farm near Grahamstown. "The relationship between us and the farmer is bad," he adds. "The farmer swears at us and calls us names like kaffir," says a worker on another farm. "There are times when he beats us."
Pity the African National Congress activist who goes to the door of Epainette Mbeki — deep in the rural Eastern Cape — looking for an easy vote for the organisation. Despite being the mother of the president and a successful local businesswoman, she chooses to live in an area with no running water, no toilets, dirt roads and no nearby hospital.