A Jewish settlement security chief was caught red-handed stealing thousands of chickens in the West Bank with two Palestinian accomplices disguised in carnival masks overnight, police said on Friday. The 42-year-old man was arrested along with a 20-year-old fellow settler and two Palestinians from east Jerusalem, said Israeli police.
Mukhtaran Bibi thought her nightmare was over when the men who gang-raped her — on orders from village elders — were sentenced to death more than two years ago. But on Thursday the nightmare began again. The victim of Pakistan’s most notorious rape case wept bitterly after a court in the southern city of Multan overturned the verdict against the rapists.
South African company directors spend more time on board matters than their global counterparts, according to results of a survey released on Friday. ”At an average of 20 hours per month, South African directors devote 17% more time to their efforts than the global average…” said Korn/Ferry International, a management consultancy which released the results.
The South African Department of Health has awarded contracts for the supply of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs for the treatment of HIV/Aids to public health facilities countrywide to seven different pharmaceutical companies. The R3,4-billion tender has been awarded to local group Aspen Pharmacare, as well as Bristol-Myers Squibb, Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Abbot, Merck Sharp & Dome and GlaxoSmithKline.
The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) will intervene in the truck drivers’ strike, the Road Freight Employers’ Association (RFEA) said on Friday. ”… the CCMA has contacted the RFEA and the five unions involved about a meeting this afternoon [Friday] following a deadlock in negotiations yesterday afternoon,” said Nico Badenhorst, chief executive of the RFEA.
Marten Pieters, CEO of Africa’s third-largest mobile group, Celtel International, on Friday declined to comment on the company’s growth prospects but said the company’s initial public offering remains on track. Pieters said Celtel is not in a position to say what its prospects and expansion plans are, as this will violate pre-listing rules.
Telkom chief executive Sizwe Nxasana told MPs on Friday that his company "is constantly responding" to the demands for the lowering of the costs of doing business — and further announcements can be expected "in the future". Nxasana was briefing the National Assembly communications portfolio committee.
Kenyan Justice Minister Kiraitu Murungi has urged Britain to formally apologise for the brutality it committed against the country’s independence fighters, Mau Mau, during the colonial period. Murungi was speaking on Thursday during the launch of a book, Britain’s Gulag: The brutal end of empire in Kenya, by Caroline Elkins of Harvard University.
United Nations peacekeeping officials sought more power to conduct aerial surveillance and electronic warfare against militia who have stepped up attacks in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s lawless Ituri region. The officials’ request, which they said on Thursday would help prevent weapons from pouring into the eastern region, came days after peacekeepers killed up to 60 people.
A Gauteng zoo owner is suspected of laundering permits to import nine old circus and zoo lions from Brazil last week, in the face of a ban on bringing the big cats into the country. Conservation authorities are investigating whether Pablo Urban fooled Free State permit officials into facilitating the deal after Gauteng officials refused to give him permits to import the lions.