The conclusion of a protracted legal dispute between South African defence industry firms and the United States will improve defence trade between the two countries, US ambassador Cameron Hume said on Wednesday. ”South African companies now have an open field in the American defence industry,” he told reporters in Pretoria.
The Chinese military surgeon who exposed the government’s cover-up of the Sars crisis was released on Tuesday after seven weeks of ”political re-education”, his family said. Jiang Yanyong (72) a semi-retired general in the People’s Liberation Army, had been detained at a secret location where he was forced to undergo daily study sessions aimed to make him renounce a critical letter he had written about the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
A passenger died on a London-bound South African Airways (SAA) flight on Tuesday night, forcing the aircraft to return to Johannesburg, the company said on Wednesday. SAA said flight SA238 left Johannesburg International airport at 8.30pm on Tuesday but returned two hours later due to the woman’s death.
The number of internet users in China has risen 28% over the past year to 87-million, and use of broadband and online commerce is soaring, the government said on Wednesday. The number of broadband subscribers has jumped 78,7% in the past six months to 31,1-million, the China Internet Network Information Centre said on its website.
The South African government has welcomed the announcement by the United States State Department that the debarment of Armscor, Fuchs and Denel has been rescinded. The debarment was originally instituted in 1994 as a result of activities undertaken in the US by these companies during the pre-1994 arms embargo era.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=119078">SA can now sell arms to the US</a>
Seventy men led by a former SAS officer go on trial in Zimbabwe on Wednesday charged with offences related to an alleged coup plot in Equatorial Guinea. The suspected mercenaries could be jailed for life in Zimbabwe, but are said to be more concerned at the possibility of extradition to Equatorial Guinea and execution.
Every so often, a story seizes the public’s interest. It’s usually a heart-string-tugging, human-interest one. The mass of media track it with persistence, passion and purpose. People take it up on the talk shows and at dinner tables. The kidnapping (and, now, grimly, the murder) of Johannesburg student Leigh Matthews became this kind of story.
About 44-million United States workers will be telecommuting, or working from home at least on a part-time basis this year, according to a survey released this week. The survey by In-Stat/MDR released on Monday projects the number of telecommuters is expected to grow by 2008 to 51-million, with 14-million working full-time at home.
The Congress of SA Trade Unions said on Tuesday the discovery of bombs in the KwaZulu-Natal legislature in Ulundi last week justified its call for the arrest of Inkatha Freedom Party member Philip Powell. ”We have long been calling for explanation as to why Phillip Powell has been allowed to go overseas … [because] he had not disclosed … where other tons of arms and ammunition [were],” Cosatu regional secretary Zet Luzipo said in a statement.
Independent music producer association Impala said on Tuesday a decision by the European Commission to clear Sony Corporation and Bertelsmann’s recorded music merger is ”flawed” and that it is now mulling its options. The association said its members ”are very disappointed that the EU has authorised this merger without any attempt to solve the competition issues that the Commission itself identified”.