A white Zimbabwean security expert who has been in custody for two months on conspiracy charges has finally had a trial date set for the end of June, reports said on Wednesday. President Robert Mugabe’s government maintains that Michael Hitschmann was at the heart of a terrorist plot that could have seen the Zimbabwean leader assassinated.
A Cambodian couple who mummified their deceased premature baby to keep at home as a lucky charm had broken no laws and were merely adhering to ancient superstitions, police said on Wednesday. Cambodians believe that the mummified bodies of children and some primates born prematurely have powerful magical powers.
Middlesbrough manager Steve McClaren is an habitually cautious man, but in the past few weeks even he has allowed himself to muse on whether his side’s progress to the Uefa Cup final might be their destiny. Twenty years after the club went into administration, Boro have come from three goals down to win both the quarterfinal and the semifinal.
Islamic militiamen and secular fighters battled on Wednesday for control of Somalia’s capital despite promises of a ceasefire, as the death toll rose to at least 90, with nearly 200 others wounded. The sounds of heavy weapons echoed through the city, but the fighting was not as intense as it had been in the previous three days.
The cause of former Kaizer Chiefs midfielder Pule Patrick ”Ace” Ntsoelengoe’s death is still unknown, Gauteng police said on Wednesday. Ntsoelengoe (54) was found dead by a Chiefs fan in his car at a hotel in Lenasia, southern Johannesburg, on Monday.
South Africa’s competitiveness has improved from 46th place in 2005 to 44th in 2006, according to this year’s World Competitiveness Report, released on Wednesday by Swiss international business school IMD. SA’s ranking is out of a total of 61 countries.
The public is worried about how the judiciary operates and the impartiality of judges, a survey released on Wednesday has found. Seventy-three percent of those polled felt it was easy to bribe justice officials and 85% thought that the crime-to-punishment process took too long, said Research Surveys, which released the poll.
The case against an IT salesman involved in an alleged hoax e-mail conspiracy within the African National Congress was postponed in the Pretoria Regional Court on Wednesday. The case against Muziwendoda Sikhona Kunene was postponed to June 26 to allow Kunene to arrange a new defence team.
Presidents, prime ministers — how universally they hate to step down from power. Long after most of their people and colleagues wish they would go, they hang on, convinced that the country still needs them. Fraser Grace’s play about Zimbabwe in 2001, currently on stage in London, resonates with Britain in 2006.
The power struggle within Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF party over President Robert Mugabe’s succession was brought to the High Court on Tuesday in a case in which former state information czar Jonathan Moyo is suing two senior members of the ruling party for defamation.