President Thabo Mbeki would have to decide if he wants to change the Donen commission’s terms of reference before it could call further witnesses. The commission is tasked with probing alleged illicit payments by South Africans of oil surcharges and kickbacks to the former Iraqi regime under the United Nations oil-for-food programme.
Ten opposition leaders and businessmen detained last week in Malawi in connection with an alleged plot to assassinate President Bingu wa Mutharika have been released due to lack of evidence, police said on Monday. ”Police have not found sufficient evidence to prosecute them,” police spokesperson Willie Mwaluka told Agence France-Presse.
There have been many memorable moments in George Bush’s career — invading Iraq, declaring the war ”accomplished”, Hurricane Katrina. But the United States President recalled that his greatest moment in office had come not on the field of battle but while out fishing.
The Bush administration, which emerged from the September 11 2001 attacks vowing to make the United States safe from terrorists, was on Sunday warned that it risked provoking a new crisis over intelligence if the president appointed a controversial general to head the CIA.
The European Union is preparing to go it alone and channel emergency funds to the Palestinians if talks with the United States, Russia and United Nations on setting up an international mechanism for easing their financial plight fail this week, senior officials indicated at the weekend.
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Jacob Zuma gave his daughter Duduzile the thumbs-up during a brief break in his rape judgement in the Johannesburg High Court on Monday. Meanwhile, the crowd supporting Zuma outside the court grew with an influx of schoolchildren in the early afternoon.
The KwaZulu-Natal Transport Alliance agreed on Monday to end a proposed week-long taxi strike, following discussions with the provincial transport department. The alliance was protesting against certain aspects of the government’s taxi recapitalisation programme, which is intended to replace the country’s ageing taxi fleet.
The authorities in Zimbabwe, who are battling to restore lost production on farms, are scheduled this week to visit new black farmers in the west of the country to see if they qualify for 99-year land leases, local reports said on Monday. Members of the National Land Board are to visit farmers in Matabeland North and South, Lands Minister Didymus Mutasa told the state-controlled The Herald newspaper.
Tourists and young couples ambling through the historic centre of Krakow on a warm spring afternoon were stopped in their tracks by a sight reminiscent of the era of martial law. As drinks flowed in the open-air cafes of Poland’s ancient royal capital, a phalanx of armed police in full riot gear inched its way slowly through the medieval city.
Eight of former Movement for Democratic Change legislator Roy Bennett’s ex-farm workers have been denied asylum by the South African government, ”in what could be a prelude to the outcome of the application for political asylum” by Bennett himself, the state-owned Zimbabwean The Herald newspaper reported on Monday.