An Ethiopian court has sentenced one newspaper editor to a month in prison and fined another for refusing to reveal the name of a source who criticised a legal ruling on May’s disputed election, officials said on Tuesday. The Supreme Court found both men guilty of contempt of court and imposed the penalties on Friday.
Members of Zimbabwe’s armed forces have been given farm land and housing plots in a government effort to boost morale among troops, President Robert Mugabe said on Tuesday at an address to mark Defence Forces’ Day. Mugabe said his government has made ”tremendous efforts to ensure that morale remains high”.
President Thabo Mbeki has called on the private sector to accelerate the empowerment and emancipation of women. The president was addressing a National Women’s Day rally at the Hlogotlou Stadium in Sekhukhune, Limpopo, on Tuesday afternoon.
A man once accused of being one of the world’s top three spammers has agreed to pay -million in a settlement with Microsoft, the software maker announced on Tuesday. The money will be used to boost efforts to combat the illegal sending of unsolicited and misleading e-mail known as spam, a Microsoft news release said.
With 138 days until Christmas, Father Christmas swapped Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer for Dino the seaside donkey on Tuesday for a mid-summer publicity stunt at London’s famed Harrods department store. Santa Claus presided over the unveiling of Harrods’ special Christmas range.
About 5 000 displaced Sudanese have completed an epic 700km trek through dense forests and swamps, returning home after four years in exile, the aid agency that helped them said on Tuesday. The International Organisation for Migration said the group’s members were overjoyed to be back after their four-month journey.
McDonald’s said on Tuesday that a 100-yen burger-and-drink combo is bringing Japanese back to the United States fast-food chain — but has eaten more than half-a-billion yen into its profits. In April, the Japanese unit of the US burger giant launched a set menu of a hamburger and a drink for 100 yen, or just less than (R6,46).
At least 22 people were killed, many of them security personnel, in a series of rebel attacks, including a car bomb, across Iraq on Tuesday, police and interior ministry officials said. Three Iraqis were killed and 32 wounded when a suicide bomber blew up a car in central Baghdad, an interior ministry official said.
Appointing more women to positions of power is not enough to bring more attention to the problems they face, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon said on Tuesday, National Women’s Day. Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Mulder said women still face discrimination and glass ceilings in society.
There is no end in sight to the strike by about 75% of South Africa’s gold-miners, the Chamber of Mines said on the third day of the strike on Tuesday. ”It doesn’t seem as if we’re making progress. The parties seem to be very far apart,” the chamber’s chief negotiator, Frans Barker, said. Trade union Solidarity’s 10 000 members joined the strike at midnight on Monday.