Plumbers may have been blamed before for excessive bills. But none has come close to matching an extravagant claim by a South Carolina firm: almost -million for two metal washers worth 19 United States cents each. The washers were part of ,5-million that C&D Distributors stole from the Pentagon over the past 10 years.
The popularity and savagery of dog fighting was highlighted in the United States on Friday when proceedings against one of the biggest stars in American football, Michael Vick, and three others began in a Virginia court. The charges relate to a six-year dog-fighting competition alleged to have been operating from Vick’s property in Virginia.
The deployment of an international peacekeeping force in Darfur was thrown into confusion on Friday by war-crimes allegations against its proposed deputy commander. Major General Karenzi Karake is accused of responsibility for carrying out political assassinations and ordering reprisal killings against Hutus in Rwanda and Zaire.
Strong winds and rain lashed Taiwan as Typhoon Sepat made landfall on Saturday, cutting power supplies to more than 70 000 homes and forcing more than 1 000 people to evacuate and airlines to delay flights. Two cars were crushed by a falling billboard in Taipei.
China has ordered its media to report only positive news and has imprisoned a pro-democracy dissident amid a clampdown on dissent ahead of the most important meeting of the communist party in five years. Media controls have been tightened, Aids activists detained and NGOs shut down.
Aside from the physical damage it wrought, this week’s coordinated bombing attack in Iraq by suspected al-Qaeda operatives revived fears among the Yezidi community, one of the region’s oldest ethno-religious groups, of annihilation at the hands of their religious enemies — in this case, Sunni extremists.
In a bold bid to turn back a rising financial storm, the United States Federal Reserve on Friday cut a key bank lending rate and signalled a willingness to take more dramatic action to cushion the economy from tightening credit. The US central bank tried to calm financial markets by lowering the discount rate that governs Fed loans to banks.
Adriaan Vlok and Frank Chikane shook hands in the Pretoria High Court on Friday, but later differed on how apartheid-era crimes should be put to rest. After the brief court proceedings, there were separate news conferences: one for Chikane, and one for Vlok and his four co-accused.
A strike at South African Airways (SAA) has been called off, the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) said on Friday. General secretary Randall Howard said the 350 Satawu members who work at the technical division of SAA called off the strike after the company and union reached an agreement.
African National Congress (ANC) presidential contender Tokyo Sexwale criticised the current state of the ANC on Friday at an ANC Youth League fund-raising dinner, saying it is marked by ”character assassinations, smear campaigns, mudslinging, whispering campaigns and rumour-mongering”.