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/ 25 September 2003
South Africa has welcomed the acquittal on Thursday of a Nigerian single mother who had faced death by stoning for having a child out of wedlock. The case had evoked wide condemnation from international rights groups, with the Nigerian government and several world leaders calling for Lawal to be spared.
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/ 25 September 2003
Two Correctional Services officials have testified that they had not received any complaints after the cells of three of the Boeremag treason trialists were searched and certain documents seized. The incident took place in October last year when the cells of Mike du Toit, his brother Andre and Koos du Plessis were searched.
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/ 25 September 2003
With its long snout and tiny body covered with spiky, long brown hair, the worm-munching creature known as Solenodon cubanus long has been a mystery to zoologists, who believed it to be extinct. But a farmer in eastern Cuba has found the first live specimen seen in four years.
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/ 25 September 2003
Nigeria has invited South African Airways to bid for its proposed new national carrier to replace the bankrupt Nigeria Airways. President Olusegun Obasanjo last month approved a new airline for Nigeria after Nigeria Airways was liquidated because of debts and inefficiency.
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/ 25 September 2003
A Nigerian man has been sentenced to death by stoning for sodomy, moments after single mother Amina Lawal had her stoning sentence for adultery lifted by another Islamic court. The conviction of 20-year-old Jibrin Babaji for sleeping with three boys was made by a Sharia court in the northern Bauchi State.
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/ 25 September 2003
A senior World Bank official has criticised developed nations that subsidise their farmers, describing the practice as ”ethically indefensible”. Nicholas Stern, the bank’s chief economist, said that agricultural subsidies are fuelling poverty in developing nations.
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/ 25 September 2003
South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel is to present his medium-term Budget policy statement — known as the mini-Budget — on November 11, according to a parliamentary schedule, followed by Manuel’s introduction of his Adjustments Appropriation Bill and the Revenue Laws Amendment Bill.
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/ 25 September 2003
Surging gold and platinum stocks helped the JSE Securities Exchange South Africa (JSE) overcome early weaknesses on Thursday, with the all-share index inching into the black just before noon. Overall, the market was very mixed, with the number of decliners and advancers on the all-share index almost equal.
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/ 25 September 2003
A controversial Pentagon Big Brother programme in the United States that calls for monitoring computer databases containing data on millions of Americans for signs of terrorist activity has been hit with the delete key. The programme has been in the crosshairs of numerous civil liberties groups for months.