It is a demanding time to be a Cabinet minister. With President Thabo Mbeki pressing hard for progress on major initiatives in economic development, service delivery and social welfare, departments are working to a rigorous, and very public, timetable. Tough deadlines and public exposure keep Cabinet hopping.

Stunned British and American scientists watched a seven-year dream fall to Earth on Wednesday at 240kph, potentially smashing the fruits of a -million mission. A parachute failed to open, and a capsule filled with particles trapped directly from the sun dropped like a stone from the edge of space and hit the muddy sands of the Utah desert with a thud.

Parliament did not approve a court application to stop the Mail & Guardian publishing allegations of irregularities in the National Council of Provinces, it emerged on Wednesday. ”I mistakenly assumed that Parliaments’ presiding officers authorised this application. This was not the case,” said NCOP office manager Moroka Butcher Matutle.

Two more men arrested in different South African towns in an international probe into weapons of mass destruction may appear in court on Thursday. This follows the sudden and unexplained withdrawal of charges against another accused in Vanderbijlpark on Wednesday.

The South African government is denying thousands of Zimbabwean refugees their right to political asylum, says a report published on Thursday by Refugees International. ”Genuine refugees are prevented from getting asylum,” said Andrea Lari, a researcher for the organisation.

Russia fired the first salvo of its response to the attack on the school in Beslan on Wednesday by saying that it reserved the right to make pre-emptive strikes against terrorist training camps outside the Russian Federation’s borders. At the same time the security services put a -million bounty on the heads of the two Chechen leaders it claims are behind the Beslan massacre, Shamil Basayev and Aslan Maskhadov.