Italian police arrested seven more suspects in the snowballing Parmalat fraud scandal as reports suggested the bankrupt food giant may soon turn to the banks for a multi-million pound rescue package to stay in business. The arrested are suspected of criminal association leading to fraudulent bankruptcy and false accounting.
A 42-year-old man was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly raping two friends, aged seven and 10, on two separate occasions in Gugulethu, Middeldrift, Grahamstown police reported. The police said the rapes occurred on Monday while the children were playing outside their house.
The government has repossessed about 400 farms from black owners who occupied more than one property seized from white farmers under a controversial land redistribution program, the state-run Herald newspaper reported on Wednesday.
In his first New Year message to ”all citizens of Africa” since assuming office in September, African Union (AU) chief Alpha Konare said he was fully aware of the ”deep aspirations and high expectations” of Africans for greater peace and security and easier movement of persons and goods.
Human rights activist Judith Todd says she had been forced to forgo her Zimbabwean citizenship in order to obtain a New Zealand passport and be able to travel. Todd has fought a two year battle with Zimbabwean officials who claim she has not renounced a claim to New Zealand citizenship through her father.
The African Union (AU) has ”strongly condemned” the killing of Vatican’s ambassador to Burundi, Archbishop Michael Courtney, who was gunned down in an ambush in the central African country early this week. The AU said it would continue to work for the success of the peace process in Burundi
South Africans are less apprehensive about the year ahead than they were a year ago, with only one in every four South Africans (24%) saying that 2004 would be worse than 2003, according to a Markinor. A further 32% said that 2004 would be the same as 2003, and 38% thought the New Year would bring them better things.
Nobel prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu in his New Year message told South Africans to use 2004 to make the most of the country’s hard earned freedom and to give something back to the underprivileged. Tutu said the country had come a long way in 10 years.
Neither President Thabo Mbeki nor armed South African troops were welcome in Haiti, a Haitian civil society grouping, Groupe 184, said on Wednesday. In an e-mailed statement it said: ”…do not be fooled — the majority of Haitians are not pleased, proud or welcoming of President Thabo Mbeki’s visit to Haiti.”
South Africa’s November trade balance with its non-Southern African Customs Union (SACU) trading partners has come in at a deficit of R4,3-billion, compared to October’s deficit of R713-million, which was the first trade deficit since September 2002. This is far worse than economists’ and analysts’ expectations.