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Former deputy president Jacob Zuma will spend his 64th birthday in the Johannesburg High Court on Wednesday as he defends himself on a charge of rape. His birth date was revealed when he was sworn in for his testimony last week. Zuma is accused of raping a 31-year-old HIV-positive family friend at his home in Johannesburg on November 2 last year. He claims they had consensual sex.
”Had Cleopatra’s nose been shorter, the whole face of the world would have changed,” French philosopher Blaise Pascal famously said three and half centuries ago. Today, it would cost Egypt’s ancient queen and beauty as little as to get a nose job in her native country, but specialists and disfigured patients might advise her against it.
The trial of Saddam Hussein on charges of crimes against humanity resumed on Wednesday for a brief ten minute session without the deposed leader or any of the other seven defendants present. Chief Judge Rauf Abdel Rahman adjourned the session to April 17 after the shortest session of the trial since it began in October.
Wallabies lock Hugh McMeniman will miss Australia’s midyear rugby internationals, including the Tri-Nations series against New Zealand and South Africa, because of a shoulder injury. McMeniman (22) said on Wednesday he will undergo surgery to repair the injury and related nerve damage, and will not be available for international selection.
Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and footballer George Weah, her main rival in the country’s recent elections, met on Monday to discuss ”peace and stability”, the government announced on Tuesday. It was the first time Weah and Johnson-Sirleaf had met for face-to-face talks
The United Nations Security Council demanded that the Sudanese government and rebels reach agreement by April 30 to end the conflict in Darfur and reaffirmed its determination to hold accountable those blocking peace and violating human rights.
No striking security guard will be allowed to come to work during the strike as from Friday, the Security Employer Organisations said. ”They can’t come to work when they feel like it and strike when they feel like it,” spokesperson Steve Friswell said on Tuesday. The employers also said that they were not prepared to return to wage negotiations with the striking union.
The dollar extended losses in Asian trade on Wednesday following Iran’s announcement that it had joined the nuclear states, with the market cautious also ahead of United States trade data, dealers said. The dollar fell to ¥118,03 in Tokyo morning trade from ¥118,21 in New York late on Tuesday.
Two policemen died in a suspected Tamil Tiger mine attack in Sri Lanka on Wednesday, the third in as many days, raising to 21 the number of people killed in the latest wave of bombings, police said. The policemen were on their way to Trincomalee to buy provisions for colleagues stationed further north of the main city in the eastern coastal district when they were ambushed.
Hundreds of rare snails were given their marching orders on Wednesday by the New Zealand government after an eight month battle between conservationists and a mining company. Up to 250 powelliphanta augustus snails — only discovered in 1996 — live on a mountainous ridge containing five million tonnes of coal worth about NZ$400-million.