Disgraced media mogul Conrad Black faces a lengthy stretch in a United States jail after a court convicted him of looting millions of dollars from his Hollinger empire by embezzling funds from shareholders. After more than 70 hours of deliberation, a jury delivered verdicts of guilty on three charges of fraud and one charge of obstructing justice.
Swedish anti-copyright website the Pirate Bay has been targeted by police before — most notably last year when it was shut down for three days. But this week it survived a different sort of challenge, after reports emerged suggesting that officials in Stockholm were considering whether to add it to the country’s internet child-abuse blacklist.
Ben du Toit, a millionaire farmer jailed for 32 years for murdering his wife, wants to be released on parole and the chance to prove his innocence. This emerged in the Pretoria High Court this week when Du Toit sought an order to set aside a decision by the parole board at the Pretoria Central Prison, refusing to release him.
The mystery of the disappearance of millions of rands invested in manufacturing plants to produce biodiesel has deepened, despite a case in the Pretoria High Court this week. Three applicants on Friday sought a winding-up order against De Beers Fuel, the company that promised to produce biodiesel from algae.
Botswana’s government came to the defence on Friday of the makers of Top Gear after the BBC motoring show was accused by environmentalists of damaging the famed Makgadikgadi salt pans during filming. The show had been widely criticised earlier this month for driving an assortment of vehicles across the sun-baked salt flats.
The South African Communist Party (SACP) elected new office bearers at its national congress in Port Elizabeth on Friday, media reports said. The party re-elected Blade Nzimande as its general secretary, and Jeremy Cronin remains his deputy. Former National Union of Mineworkers boss Gwede Mantashe was elected national chairperson.
The man shot dead in a hijacking at Sinoville in Pretoria on Friday was identified as Khetang Eric Lerata (42), a manager at the Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa. Lerata was shot dead in a hijacking outside his home on Friday morning. He was shot at close range after a scuffle with the hijackers. His driver was assaulted and was admitted to hospital.
The body of a young girl, suspected to be that of a 13-year-old reported missing in Merweville, was found on Friday, Western Cape police said — the same day that a newly born baby was found dead in a dustbin in Mamelodi East, Pretoria. Spokesperson Ntobeko Mangqwengqwe said police found the girl’s decomposed body in a water tank at a farm outside Leeu-Gamka.
For those who have lifestyles instead of lives, death must appear incomprehensibly terrifying, the ultimate faux pas that brings life’s scrapbooking evening to a hasty, embarrassed close. It is non-returnable, non-deductible, non-refundable, non-negotiable. And, more appalling, it makes you all spotty and fat, and then it makes you stringy.
Fallen media tycoon Conrad Black was convicted on Friday of mail fraud and concealing documents from an official proceeding, but a jury acquitted him of wire fraud, racketeering and several other counts. Black had been accused of swindling shareholders out of millions of dollars.