On one floor is a bullet-scarred car used by American journalists in the Balkans. On another is the phone Rupert Murdoch used to make multibillion-dollar media deals. And in between there is one of the biggest remaining chunks of the Berlin Wall and the mangled remains of a communication tower from the 9/11 attack.
A British citizen was charged on Thursday with war crimes in the Balkans 16 years ago and faces trial in Belgrade for allegedly taking part in the murder of at least 200 Croatian prisoners by Serbian firing squads. Milorad Pejic, a Croatian Serb from the Croatian border town of Vukovar, lived in Corby in Northamptonshire for 10 years until last month.
Israel’s former president Moshe Katzav was due to appear in court on sexual-harassment charges on Tuesday, becoming the country’s first former head of state to go on trial. The Jerusalem District Court set the hearing after rejecting a postponement request by Katzav’s lawyers, who claim they were not given full access to prosecution documents.
First National Bank’s (FNB) ”million-a-month account” competition is an illegal lottery, the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) ruled on Friday. The SCA dismissed the bank’s appeal against a Pretoria High Court declaratory order, according to which the bank’s competition was a lottery prohibited by the Lotteries Act.
Former Elite bouncer Jonathan Street sat impassively as he was sentenced to an effective 24 years in jail for the murder of 18-year-old art student Kyle Norris, the Star reported on Thursday. Street was found guilty, earlier this month, of shooting Norris in the head at the Mac X sports and strip club in Edenvale, east of Johannesburg, on November 19 2006.
The ban on free-to-air television broadcaster e.tv from covering the Zimbabwean polls detracts from that country’s claim to hold free and fair elections, the South Africa National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) said on Tuesday. Zimbabwe’s state-owned Sunday Mail first reported the ban.
There is a need to investigate collusion between state prosecutors and white farmers, the Congress of South African Trade Unions said on Tuesday. Spokesperson Patrick Craven said they demanded a full investigation into the conduct of the police and prosecutors.
Pakistan’s new prime minister was sworn in by President Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday as two senior United States envoys arrived for talks aimed at shoring up Islamabad’s role in the ”war on terror”.
Pakistan’s new prime minister triggered an immediate showdown with Pervez Musharraf on Monday, ordering the release of judges detained by the president just moments after being elected. Musharraf had ordered the judges held in November amid fears they might challenge his grip on power in the nuclear-armed nation.
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African National Congress president Jacob Zuma’s last-ditch bid to prevent key documents from being used against him came to an end on Wednesday when the Constitutional Court reserved judgement. On Thursday, Zuma stayed away from the court building.
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The documents the state is seeking to obtain from Mauritius may never be used against African National Congress president Jacob Zuma, the Constitutional Court heard on Thursday. State advocate Wim Trengove said evidence gathered ”does not automatically become evidence before the court”.
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African National Congress president Jacob Zuma’s attempt to have search-and-seizure raids as well as a letter requesting documents from Mauritius ruled invalid was set to enter a third day at the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg on Thursday.
President Thabo Mbeki needs to urgently intervene to stop Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Brigitte Mabandla’s ”sadistic games”, Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) chief whip Koos van der Merwe said on Wednesday. ”The minister of justice can best be described as a sadist,” he said in a statement.
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A state lawyer accused African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma in court on Wednesday of trying to delay justice through his attempt to block the use of seized documents at his upcoming corruption trial. The trial, due to start in August, could ruin Zuma’s hopes of succeeding President Thabo Mbeki in 2009.
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Warrants issued to allow the Scorpions to conduct search-and-seizure raids on the properties of African National Congress president Jacob Zuma, his attorney and French arms manufacturer Thint were specific, the Constitutional Court heard on Wednesday.
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African National Congress president Jacob Zuma sat quietly in the front row of the Constitutional Court on Tuesday, listening to his legal team challenge the validity of the warrants used to seize documents that could be used against him in his forthcoming corruption trial.
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There is no statute determining exactly what provisions should be in a search warrant, the Constitutional Court heard on Tuesday as African National Congress president Jacob Zuma and French arms company Thint began a last-ditch bid to prevent key documents from being used against them.
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African National Congress president Jacob Zuma arrived at the Constitutional Court on Tuesday amid a heavy security presence and the sound of camera shutters as photographers attempted to shoot pictures. A heavy police presence was visible around the court buildings while journalists packed the press gallery trying to get a view of Zuma.
A United States teen who used vulgar slang in an internet blog to complain about school administrators should not have been punished by the school, her lawyer told a federal appeals court this week. But a lawyer for the school said administrators should be allowed to act if such comments are made on the web.
”I am shocked to learn from ‘A democracy of untouchables’ (February 8) that Independent Communications Authority of South Africa councillor Robert Nkuna was involved in drafting the African National Congress’s proposal for a print-media tribunal,” writes the Democratic Alliance’s Dene Smuts.
Nigerian opposition candidate Mohammadu Buhari has asked the Supreme Court to overturn an election tribunal ruling upholding the victory of President Umaru Yar’Adua in the April 2007 vote, his lawyer said on Monday. Mike Ahamba said he filed an appeal to the Supreme Court on Friday seeking a reversal of the ruling in favour of his client.
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/ 29 February 2008
Chad extended a state of emergency by a further 15 days on Friday, saying it was needed to maintain state authority almost a month after a rebel attack on the capital, Ndjamena. The state of emergency gives the government wide search-and-arrest powers and also permits control of media reporting.
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/ 28 February 2008
Ousted Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra made an emotional return from exile on Thursday, swearing to stay out of politics despite a widespread belief he would run the country from behind the scenes. Within minutes of arriving, the telecoms billionaire surrendered to police on a corruption charge.
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/ 27 February 2008
Thailand, trying to recover from two years of political turmoil, braced for the return of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra from nearly 18 months in exile on Thursday, with his battle against an array of opponents far from over. Rivals ranging from the royalist establishment to street-protest leaders will confront Thaksin.
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/ 26 February 2008
An application to have a Labour Department inquiry into workers’ exposure to poisonous fumes at a Cato Ridge ferromanganese smelter dismissed because of alleged bias was itself dismissed to loud cheers on Tuesday afternoon by the inquiry’s presiding officer, departmental inspector Vuli Sibisi.
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/ 25 February 2008
A Nigerian tribunal will rule on Tuesday whether the election of President Umaru Yar’Adua was valid, a decision that could entrench a disputed government or tip Africa’s most populous nation into turmoil. Yar’Adua won a landslide victory in last April’s elections but observers accused the party of widespread vote-rigging.
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/ 21 February 2008
A spokesperson for about 1 800 people evicted from unfinished homes in Delft on Thursday appealed for water and food for the group, now living on a site adjacent to the land. "It’s like a state of emergency," said Ashraf Cassim, a spokesperson for the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign.
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/ 20 February 2008
The Western Cape anti-eviction campaign said about 1 000 people were occupying Delft’s Symphony Road on Wednesday and would remain there until their appeal for housing was lodged in the Supreme Court, hopefully later in the day.
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/ 19 February 2008
Seven people were injured on Tuesday when riot-squad officers fired rubber bullets and stun grenades at squatters resisting eviction from a housing project in Delft near Cape Town, South African police said. The violence erupted as several hundred squatters tried to prevent contractors from loading their scant belongings on to removal trucks.
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/ 19 February 2008
The City of Johannesburg cannot evict inner-city tenants living in central Johannesburg unless adequate alternative accommodation is provided, the Constitutional Court ruled on Tuesday. ”Potential homelessness must be considered by a city when it decides whether to evict people from buildings,” said the court.
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/ 19 February 2008
Japan’s top court ruled on Tuesday that pictures by late United States photographer Robert Mapplethorpe are not obscene, putting an end to years of legal fighting. In the 2003 ruling, the Tokyo High Court ruled that the book, which included images of male genitals, went ”against good sexual morality”.
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/ 19 February 2008
Evictions have begun at the housing development in Delft illegally occupied by backyard dwellers, the Western Cape Anti-Eviction campaign said on Tuesday morning. A Cape High Court judge on Monday refused the more than 1Â 000 squatters leave to appeal against an earlier eviction order.