A new round of talks on Monday, hosted by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, which are designed to ease tensions between rival factions, made significant progress. Aziz Dweik, the Hamas speaker of the Ramallah-based Parliament, told reporters that he believed agreement on a common approach was within reach.
More white youth need to be involved in commemorating heroes of the country’s past, the National Youth Commission said on Monday. Chairperson Jabu Mbalula, speaking at the launch of the 30th anniversary of the June 16 uprisings in Soweto, said the organisation ”has not succeeded in mobilising the white youth”.
Imagine an invisibility cloak that works just like the one Harry Potter inherited from his father. Researchers in the United Kingdom and the United States think they know how to do that. They are laying out the blueprint and calling for help in developing the exotic materials needed to build a cloak.
United Nations agencies called on Monday for field hospitals, medicines and tents to be rushed to Indonesia within days as the global relief effort to help tens of thousands of earthquake victims gathered pace. In Geneva, UN and Red Cross agencies met to try to coordinate the huge mobilisation.
The head of South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority, Vusi Pikoli, on Monday briefed the presiding officers of Parliament and the chief whips of the various political parties on the progress being made in the ”Travelgate” prosecutions. At a briefing to the media afterwards, Pikoli indicated that 30 people will face the court on July 31.
Ah, come on, guys, let’s have a bit of fun out there for a change. Television can’t just be soapies, game shows and chat shows. We could have had Die Groot Krokodil show, a rare television interview with PW Botha on the eve of his 90th birthday. But every single station manager in the country was too alarmed at the thought to let it go ahead.
Coalition warplanes bombed Taliban meeting in a mosque in southern Afghanistan on Monday, killing up to 50 suspected rebels, Afghan and the United States-led coalition officials said. Five Canadian soldiers were wounded and a suspected Taliban killed in a gun battle elsewhere in the volatile south.
The trial of deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and seven co-defendants for crimes against humanity heard testimony on Monday on behalf of the judge who sentenced 148 Shi’ites to death more than two decades ago. Awad al-Bandar oversaw the trial in 1984 for the people of Dujail.
Members of militias fighting for control of the Somali capital could face war-crimes charges for attempting to prevent the wounded and civilians from receiving assistance during the conflict, a United Nations official warned on Monday. The battle between fundamentalist Islamic militias and rival secular combatants has forced about 1 500 to seek treatment.
The trial of deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and seven co-defendants was expected to resume on Monday with further defence testimony seeking to refute the charges of crimes against humanity. The accused have had a chance to bring witnesses to speak out on their behalf over the charges relating to the killing of Shi’ite villagers after an attempt on Saddam’s life in 1982.