Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has resigned, ending a months-long stand-off with Republican and Democratic critics who called for his ouster over the Justice Department’s botched handling of FBI terror investigations and the firing of United States attorneys, officials said on Monday.
The preferred bidder to build and operate South Africa’s first private sector-owned power generation plants was announced by Minister of Minerals and Energy Buyelwa Sonjica on Monday. The AES Consortium — led by AES Pacific Ocean Holdings and several local companies — has been selected to build and operate the gas-turbine plants in Durban and Port Elizabeth.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Monday accused police of brutality by using excessive force during workers’ protests, saying they had fired tear gas and rubber bullets without warning. It said in a statement that rubber bullets were fired at striking mineworkers in the North West last week.
The death toll from floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains and snow melt in South Asia since June approached 3 200 on Monday as some rivers in India continued to overflow, the government said. In the massive flood plain of the eastern Indian state of Bihar — one of the worst-hit areas — the death toll reached nearly 500 with 20-million people affected.
Jamaican world record holder Asafa Powell admitted on Monday that he gave up during his world 100m final showdown with new champion Tyson Gay. ”When I saw I wasn’t in gold medal contention, I gave up. I just stopped running,” Powell told Reuters in an interview on Monday, less than 24 hours after he lost to the American.
Five months after the suspension of the Lotto, Trade and Industry minister Mpahlwa is yet to announce the date when it is to resume. Mpahlwa’s spokesperson, Vukani Mde, on Monday said the minister still had not made any announcement.
Climate negotiators from more than 150 nations assembled in Vienna on Monday with calls for a global deal beyond 2012 to replace the United Nations’s Kyoto Protocol and include outsiders such as the United States and China. ”Climate change is already a harsh reality, a massive obstacle to development,” Austrian Environment Minister Josef Proell said.
Zimbabwe is facing another year of food shortages as three major fertiliser manufacturers have closed due to power cuts and a lack of raw materials, state media reported on Monday. Eben Makonese, chief executive of Chemplex Coroporation, which runs the three semi-governmental firms, said they have not been able to operate since last month.
Five charges of tax fraud against retired mining mogul Roger Kebble were withdrawn in the Johannesburg Regional Court, the South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Monday. Kebble was charged with tax evasion amounting to R7,2-million in March last year. The case was postponed at least eight times at the state’s request.
Sudan has expelled the top official in Sudan of United States-based aid group Care, the director said on Monday. Country director Paul Barker told Reuters the Sudanese government’s Humanitarian Aid Commission had given him 72 hours to leave the country without giving reasons for the decision.