South Africa’s Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour has reported figures indicating that the number of prisoner escapes from correctional facilities has been on a downward trend in the post-apartheid period. Just 120 prisoners escaped in 2005 and 30 escaped in the first three months of this year.
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South African former deputy president Jacob Zuma apologised to the nation on Tuesday for having unprotected sex with an HIV-positive woman, a day after he was acquitted of rape. ”I should have been more cautious and more responsible,” said Zuma in an interview to SABC radio. ”I erred on this issue and on this, I apologise.”
Nearly 30 years after the birth of the world’s first test-tube baby, Kenya on Tuesday celebrated the deliveries of the first children conceived through in-vitro fertilisation in the country. The two baby girls were born to two mothers, aged 30 and 35, at a private hospital in the capital on Monday.
The retrial is due to start on Thursday in Tripoli of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who have been held in jail since 1999 on charges of infecting Libyan children with HIV/Aids. Since death sentences against the defendants were quashed on Christmas Day, relations been Tripoli and Sofia have been strained by the publication in Bulgaria of cartoons of Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi.
The peer review system established under the African Union cracks the mould of continental politics. For the first time, African leaders agreed to submit governance to internal and external checks and balances. Recently South Africa tabled its first self-assessment report at a meeting in Kliptown — the venue at which the Freedom Charter was drawn up.
The JSE was slightly higher in noon trade on Tuesday, with stocks such as gold counters bouncing after being sold off in late Monday trade. The market remained nervous, however, which made for light volumes. By 11.59am, the all-share index was up 0,24%. Resources rose 0,29%, the gold-mining index rebounded 1,07% and the platinum-mining index climbed 0,86%.
Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft will unleash their latest video game offerings as they battle it out at a premier showcase of new products in the -billion global gaming market. The United States and Japanese computer game titans were among game-makers from 90 countries converging on the Los Angeles Convention Centre for an Electronic Entertainment Expo which begins on Tuesday.
Foreign ministers from world powers held intensive discussions on Iran’s controversial nuclear programme on Monday, but there was no sign whether they made any progress on a unified position. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hosted talks and a dinner for her counterparts from Russia, China, France, Britain, Germany and the European Union.
Peter Jackson, New Zealand Oscar-winning director of The Lord of the Rings, has denied he is working on a remake of the class 1954 World War II movie The Dam Busters. Jackson’s only two confirmed upcoming movies were Halo this year, of which he is executive producer, and The Lovely Bones, which he would direct next year.
Skinny-dipping is a hallowed part of Australian culture with five of six states setting aside certain beaches for nudists. The odd one out is Queensland, which used to call itself the ”sunshine state” but now, more implausibly, calls itself the ”smart state”.