Police in Chad have released the former head of an independent radio station, Tchanguiz Vatankhah, who was detained for more than three weeks for his political activities, a media body said on Monday. Vatankhah, who is president of the Chad Union of Privately Owned Radio Stations (URPT), was freed last Friday, said a URPT statement.
South African power utility Eskom on Monday announced that unit one at the Koeberg nuclear power station in the Western Cape had started delivering electricity to the national network again. The unit, which had been out of service since November 2005, returned to service last Wednesday, Eskom said.
Official opposition Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon took to the streets of Mitchells Plain on Monday, where his party is fighting a key by-election against Patricia de Lille’s Independent Democrats in the coloured working-class district of Tafelsig. He argued that voters were being given a chance to vote against De Lille’s flirtation with the African National Congress ”reign of ruin”.
Analysts in the disputed Serbian province of Kosovo say Montenegro’s independence is likely to contribute to stability in the historically volatile Balkans. The outcome could finally encourage Belgrade to focus on its own problems, after its involvement in the brutal wars of the early 1990s that tore apart former communist Yugoslavia, they add.
A major Japanese television network apologised on Monday after almost 160 people were struck with vomiting and diarrhoea after following a weight-loss plan it broadcast. A May 6 show on Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) introduced a diet of rice mixed with white kidney beans that had been roasted for about three minutes and ground into powder.
Up to 80 Taliban rebels and at least 16 civilians were killed on Monday during a coalition air and ground attack on a village in southern Afghanistan, officials and witnesses said. The United States-led coalition said it called in war planes after troops who were trying to capture insurgents in Kandahar province came under fire.
A director of the liquidated Bathong travel agency, David Phokeng, was arrested on Monday in a bid to make him co-operate with the liquidation inquiry. Bellville magistrate Mannie van Reenen ordered the arrest after the attorney acting for the liquidators, Bernhard Kurz, complained that Phokeng regarded the hearings as a joke.
Jurors began a third day of deliberations on Monday in the fraud trial of former Enron chief executives Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay, after a weekend break. The deliberations, in what is seen as the biggest corporate fraud trial in recent years, could lead to big prison terms for Skilling (52), who faces 28 counts of fraud and conspiracy, and Lay (64).
An internet-based survey conducted by South Africa’s Triangle Project in April has revealed that most of the respondents felt that the mass media contribute to prejudice against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. You and Huisgenoot magazines were named as the most prejudiced towards the gay community.
President Thabo Mbeki announced a Cabinet reshuffle on Monday, following the death earlier this month of minister of public works Stella Sigcau. Her post will now be filled by Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs Thoko Didiza. Deputy Minister of Minerals and Energy Lulama Xingwana will become Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs.