The key aspect of black economic empowerment (BEE) is that it should never destroy value for the parties involved, says the recently appointed chairperson of BHP Billiton, Dr Vincent Maphai. BHP Billiton is the world’s largest diversified resources group and employs 35 000 people.

The disgraced founder of Pakistan’s nuclear programme has informed investigators that he supplied rogue states with nuclear technology with the full knowledge of the country’s ruling military elite, including President Pervez Musharraf, a friend of the nuclear scientist was reported as saying on Tuesday.

South African cellphone users have been being encouraged to turn their phones off on Wednesday for 24 hours in a national protest against cellular network operators. An anonymous chain e-mail currently in circulation asks users to not support cellular networks in a protest against what it calls ”rate increases and poor service”.

The United States Secretary of State, Colin Powell, on Tuesday revealed the first cracks of doubt from within President George Bush’s administration about the decision to go to war against Iraq, acknowledging he might not have supported an invasion had he known Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction.