The Constitutional Court on Tuesday reserved judgment in the application of three HIV-positive women for leave to appeal against a judgment of the Johannesburg High Court. The high court found last year that the women’s right to privacy, dignity and psychological integrity were not infringed by the publication of their names and HIV status in politician Patricia de Lille’s biography.
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The Congress of South African Trade Unions has welcomed Jacob Zuma’s apology for having unprotected sex with an HIV-positive woman. It said it agreed with Judge Willem van der Merwe that ”it is totally unacceptable that a man should have unprotected sex with a person other than his regular partner and definitely not with a person who, to his knowledge, is HIV-positive”.
Divisions emerged on Tuesday in the Darfur rebel group that signed a peace deal with Khartoum last week. Ibrahim Ahmed Ibrahim, top adviser to Sudan Liberation Movement leader Minni Arko Minnawi, sent a letter to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan charging that his boss had been pressured into signing Friday’s peace agreement.
A landmark letter from Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to United States President George Bush carries with it little hope of an end to decades of animosity, many ordinary Iranians commented on Tuesday. Several people believed the content of the message may only make matters worse.
Iraq’s prime minister-designate Nuri al-Maliki said on Tuesday that the line-up for the country’s first permanent government of the post-Saddam Hussein era was almost ready, after months of tortuous negotiations. "We will finalise the Cabinet today [Tuesday] or tomorrow [Wednesday] and will present the new government to the Parliament this week," he told reporters.
The contentious issue of floor-crossing will be raised in Parliament next week, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon promised on Tuesday. Speaking at the Africa Dialogue lecture series at the University of Pretoria, Leon said the practice has become almost universally detested by voters.
The Democratic Alliance has urged President Thabo Mbeki to broaden the Donen commission’s terms of reference to include a probe into allegations of African National Congress involvement in the Iraqi oil-for-food scandal. The Freedom Front Plus also wants the commission’s terms of reference extended.
Italy’s Parliament failed to elect a new president of the republic in a second round of voting on Tuesday, with the country’s two opposing blocs engaged in intense negotiations aimed at resolving the political stalemate. Giorgio Napolitano, a highly respected life senator backed by Romano Prodi’s centre-left coalition, has emerged as the front-runner.
Delegates from West and Central African countries gathered in Gabon’s capital Libreville on Tuesday to open talks on a joint accord to fight the trafficking of children and women that plagues the continent. Gabon’s Foreign Minister, Jean-Francois Ndongou, opened the session, saying ”better regional cooperation is necessary” to combat trafficking.
The United Nations nuclear watchdog said on Tuesday that it had adequate monitoring measures in place at a site where Brazil says it is now enriching uranium. ”There are safeguard measures that have been agreed that will meet the agency’s requirements,” said Marc Vidricaire, spokesperson for the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency.