The man dubbed by federal agents as the ”Last Don”, Joseph ”Big Joey” Massino, has gone on trial in New York, with prosecutors hoping for a conviction that could deal a knockout blow to organised crime in the city. Massino, the alleged boss of the Bonanno crime family, is charged with seven murders and a host of racketeering charges.
Three of the four Massachusetts communities that married same-sex couples from outside the state have stopped issuing licenses to non-residents after receiving a warning from the state attorney general, who cited a 1913 law that bars them from marrying gay couples from other states.
Plans to have prisoners convicted by a United Nations tribunal of genocide serve their sentences in Rwanda, where they committed their crimes in 1994, prompted outrage on Tuesday from defence lawyers. Jailing convicts in Rwanda would ”place them under the control of people accused of war crimes”, they said.
Fraudulent, negligent and malpractising doctors will soon be facing much more stringent disciplinary procedures, the Health Professions Council (HPC) said on Tuesday. ”The medical profession must see us as taking these offences seriously,” said Nicky Padayachee, the newly appointed HPC president.
One of the most sacred shrines of Shia Islam suffered minor damage during clashes on Tuesday between United States forces and radical Shiite militiamen that killed at least 13 Iraqis, some of them civilians. It was unclear who was responsible for the damage to the shrine.
Frantic relatives dug through the mud for loved ones as a makeshift morgue filled up with 100 corpses in rains that devoured a Dominican Republic village on the Haitian border. Radio stations reported on Tuesday at least 60 people were dead on the Haitian side.
A former South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) employee cried bitterly when the Johannesburg Regional Court found her on Tuesday guilty of defrauding the public broadcaster almost R1-million. During 1993 and 1994 Sheila Dlikilili, with the assistance of others, ”recklessly squandered the SABC’s money”, the court heard.
South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma — facilitator of the Burundi peace process — on Tuesday welcomed the United Nations Security Council’s resolution to deploy 5 650 military personnel and 120 civilian police in Burundi for an initial period of six months, beginning from June 1.
Black economic empowerment, poverty, education, HIV/Aids, tourism and the Soccer World Cup in 2010 were some of the issues KwaZulu-Natal Premier S’bu Ndebele touched on in his ”state of the province” address in Pietermaritzburg on Tuesday. He plans to pay particular attention to broad-based economic empowerment.
Sudan’s government and main rebel group will on Wednesday sign key deals on the remaining political issues standing in the way of a final accord to end 21 years of civil war, the Kenyan foreign ministry said on Tuesday. ”The protocols represent a major step towards the achievement of a final comprehensive settlement to the conflict,” the ministry said in a statement.