Wearing handcuffs and leg-irons in an African prison, the former SAS soldier who tried to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea in a coup d’état on Tuesday claimed the main instigator of the plot was the London-based Lebanese millionaire Ely Calil.
Oil prices were close to $109 in Asian trade on Wednesday, underpinned by the United States dollar’s dive to a new low against the euro and supply concerns, dealers said. In late morning trade, New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for April delivery, traded briefly at $108,90 a barrel, up 15 cents from its record closing high of $108,75 on Tuesday.
"By the very fact that they are part of the South African society, journalists are bound by what is in the Constitution. Their responsibility is to take the vision in the Constitution and hold it up and say: Are we living up to that vision?" The <i>Mail & Guardian</i>’s ombud, Franz Krüger, interviews press ombudsman Joe Thloloe.
Oil prices struck a record high of $109,72 per barrel on Tuesday after the dollar hit a fresh all-time low against the euro and amid persistent energy-supply concerns, traders said. New York’s main oil contract, light sweet crude for delivery in April, soared to the historic level, beating the previous peak of $108,21, which was set on Monday.
Zimbabwe’s government on Tuesday sought to allay fears over a new equity law to give locals a controlling share in business ownership, saying it would not lead to expropriation of foreign-owned firms. "This is not going to be expropriation," Indigenisation and Empowerment Minister Paul Mangwana told a news conference.
A cyclone that has battered coastal areas of northern and central Mozambique has killed at least 16 people and hundreds more have been injured, rescue services said on Tuesday. Joao Ribeiro, deputy director of the national disaster-management institute, said that six people were killed by Cyclone Jokwe between Saturday and Sunday.
Consumer rights champion Isabel Jones has died, one of her agents confirmed on Tuesday. Jones, who underwent open heart surgery in December, was not feeling well on Friday and was admitted to hospital, said Stuart Lee, chief executive of Famous Faces Management, the agent for aspects of Jones’s commercial career. Jones died on Tuesday morning, said Lee.
After the Competition Tribunal on Monday rejected an application to confirm a settlement agreement between the Competition Commission and Netcare Hospital Group, Netcare said in a statement on Tuesday it was disappointed with the decision of the tribunal not to sanction the consent order.
The Kenyan army has launched a massive crackdown on a tribal militia in western Kenya that has killed hundreds of people in recent months, officials said on Monday. Police estimate that the militia has killed at least 500 people in the past year alone and displaced thousands of others. Last week, the group attacked a village in the area and killed 15 people.
"Good corporate citizenship recognises the need for sustainable social investment. As the name implies, CSI is all about social investment. Cheque-book charity no longer cuts the mustard." Last year, law firm Deneys Reitz won two Investing in the Future awards. In light of this success, associate Liesl Williams looks at CSI.
"When I started working on the Investing Awards 10 years ago, CSI was a small idea, but it has subsequently grown in leaps and bounds." The Investing Awards celebrate their 19th year. Convener Sudley Adams reflects on their development as a premier corporate social investment accolade.
Yolandi Groenewald introduces the judges of the Investing in the Future Awards, who this year include Reg Rumney — the chairperson of the panel of judges, is an independent consultant, researcher and analyst who focuses on investment issues — and Dr Iqbal Survé, a medical doctor, philanthropist, entrepreneur and global business leader.
Escalating banditry has forced the World Food Programme (WFP) to halve food deliveries in Darfur, and without immediate cash the United Nations agency will ground its humanitarian flights at the end of the month. So far his year, hijackers have attacked five WFP passenger vehicles and 45 WFP-contracted trucks, the agency said in a statement.
Seven French electricity experts visited South Africa last week to assist Eskom in dealing with the electricity crisis facing South Africa, the French embassy said on Monday. During his state visit to South Africa on February 28 and 29, French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced that France would be sending engineers to work closely with their South African counterparts.
Leaders from 10 Central African nations began summit talks in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Monday regarding developments in Chad in the wake of a failed rebel offensive. President Joseph Kabila of the DRC welcomed six other heads of state, including Chad’s President Idriss Déby Itno.
South African mobile telecommunications group Vodacom and its shareholders, together with Rand Merchant Bank, a division of FirstRand Bank, are currently in the process of structuring a R7,5-billion black economic empowerment (BEE) transaction, it said on Monday. The Vodacom group said that its BEE transaction was "well on track".
World 60m hurdles champion Liu Xiang went through two medal ceremonies at the world indoor championships on Sunday when organisers mistakenly played the Chilean national anthem instead of China’s. Chinese star Liu, the Olympic and world 110m hurdles champion, had clinched the gold medal on Saturday.
Security forces armed with loud hailers were deployed in eastern Sri Lanka on Monday to drive away wild elephants blocking access to polling booths, police said. Villagers in Wellaveli told the authorities that they were unable to vote at the first local elections in 14 years because a herd of elephants had blocked their polling booth.
Dr Ihron Rensburg, the University of Johannesburg’s vice- chancellor, is in the news again. A new house worth R5-million is being built for him because he doesn’t like the one his predecessors occupied. I have sympathy for the argument that such excesses have no place in this country, but there is cause to reconsider.
Trevor Manuel has been parrying jabs from Terry Crawford-Browne for more than six years, and dishing out a few of his own, but now he wants the Cape High Court to play referee. "If you want to box, box above the belt, and all we say is, we want Queensbury rules," Manuel’s advocate, Brian Pincus, told Judge André le Grange.
It is like something Lewis Carroll might have written: "Beware the fearsome information peddler; he lurks, waiting to catch the unsuspecting Democratee …" The <i>Browse Mole</i> saga, and Parliament’s role in it, is a work of similarly unrestrained imagination. What are we to make of all this?
Pakistan’s two major opposition leaders signed a formal declaration Sunday on forming a coalition government, and urged President Pervez Musharraf to convene Parliament without delay. Asif Ali Zardari, widowed husband of ex-premier Benazir Bhutto, and Nawaz Sharif signed the agreement at a news conference after a fresh round of coalition talks.
Calls to end forced marriage, domestic abuse and job discrimination marked International Women’s Day on Saturday as demonstrators took to the streets worldwide. The issues highlighted crossed a wide spectrum, including abortion rights in Italy, violence against women in Iraq and women hostages in Colombia.
African neighbours Chad and Sudan will sign an agreement to end their long-running conflict in Dakar next week, the Senegalese president said on Friday. "There will be the signing of a general agreement and an implementation agreement" on March 12, President Abdoulaye Wade said.
<b>ON CIRCUIT:</b> <i>Charlie Wilson’s War</i>, <i>Fool’s Gold</i> and Laura Linney in <i>The Savages</i>.
The issue of race has opened an ugly wound on the South African landscape.
The price of gold hit a new record on Thursday close to the symbolic $1 000per ounce level as the precious metal was boosted again by the weak dollar, traders said. On the London Bullion Market, the price of gold jumped as high as $991,68 per ounce, beating Wednesday’s record high of $991,47.
Oil prices surged past $105 for the first time on Thursday as traders reacted to a surprisingly sharp fall in United States crude reserves and the plunging US dollar, analysts said. New York’s main oil contract, light sweet crude for delivery in April, hit $105,10 per barrel, topping the previous record of $104,95 set on Wednesday.
An Australian man has been arrested after taking a new car on a test drive that lasted 6 200km, five days and almost took him from one side of the continent to the other. Police said the 30-year-old man walked into a car dealership in the southern city of Melbourne last Friday and asked to take a 2008 model Honda Accord for a spin.
The Kenyan government sanctioned violence following last December’s disputed presidential elections, the BBC alleged on Wednesday, but Nairobi strongly denied the claims. The BBC quoted sources alleging that meetings were held at the official residence of President Mwai Kibaki between a banned militia group and high-ranking government figures.
It has been an uplifting week. The women who took back the taxi ranks in marches last Friday and on Monday this week deserve a bow from all of us. What they have done is not only to assert that the miniskirt is women’s to wear as we will, but also that public spaces are there for the public.
More than 100 people died in clashes between demonstrators and police in Cameroon last week, a local human rights group said on Wednesday in the absence of an official toll. "We can already say there are more than 100 dead. News comes in to us every day and we are still checking it out," Madeleine Afite of the Maison des Droits de L’Homme said.