The United States Supreme Court on Monday delivered a victory to internet giant eBay in a closely watched case seen as a test for high-tech disputes over patent infringement. The court’s unanimous ruling does not exonerate eBay in the patent dispute with a company called MercExchange.
Chadian President Idriss Déby Itno, re-elected at the weekend, may have swept to victory in a poll boycotted by his main opponents, but critics and rebels agreed on Monday he faces huge problems. Results on Sunday night gave him a total of 77,53% of the votes cast on May 3, opening the way to a third five-year term.
Members of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) are gearing up for a general strike on Thursday in support of the Jobs and Poverty Campaign. "Levels of unemployment and poverty in South Africa are totally unacceptable, and the poverty this causes is inflicting misery on millions of families," Cosatu said.
Côte d’Ivoire President Laurent Gbagbo has vowed that he will remain in power as long as elections have not been held in the crisis-ridden and politically divided West African country. ”The Constitution on which I took [my] oath gives me a responsibility,” he declared on Sunday on a United Nations-run radio station.
Nigeria’s Central Bank opened a media campaign on Monday to try to discourage people from defacing or abusing the naira currency or hiding it in their underwear. In adverts on television, radio and in the press, the Central Bank said the naira should be handled with care and not defaced, squeezed, stained, torn or written on.
German and Polish hooligans will present the biggest risk of violence at the World Cup finals in Germany, Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said in a newspaper interview on Monday. ”The biggest problem we have is with German hooligans. We must not place the blame on neighbouring countries,” Schaeuble told Der Tagesspiegel newspaper.
<a href="http://www.mg.co.za/specialreport.aspx?area=zuma_report"><img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/243078/zuma.jpg" align=left border=0></a>The African National Congress Women’s League has welcomed the resolution of the ruling movement’s national executive committee to accept the request by the movement’s second-in-command, Jacob Zuma, to resume his duties. The committee made the decision following the acquittal of Zuma — who was dismissed last year as South Africa’s deputy president — for rape.
Pakistan said on Monday that Osama bin Laden was likely to be in Afghanistan, rejecting a reported claim by Kabul’s foreign minister that the al-Qaeda chief is hiding in Pakistani territory. In the latest verbal salvo between the neighbours, Islamabad dismissed criticism by new Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta of its attempts to catch Bin Laden.
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The Durban High Court has dismissed a bid by arms company Thint for further particulars on the corruption charges it is to face alongside former deputy president Jacob Zuma. However, Thint attorney Ajay Sooklal said the court’s decision amounts to a ”postponement of the matter”.
Teachers may search anyone on school property without a search warrant, the Department of Education said in Pretoria on Monday at a meeting following a month of violence in schools that has resulted in the deaths of at least two pupils and numerous injuries through stabbings and gun violence.