adminEDITORIAL COMMENT: Let’s all plant trees this summer
TREES are life, miti hupenyu, izihlahla ziyimpilo.
This is the message that those who grew up in the 1980s were exposed to and it was a clarion call to preserve the environment.
Cherish Unity Accord
By Dosman Mangisi
We again approach that time of the year when we come together as a nation to commemorate that important day on our calendar in celebrating the signing of our valued Unity Accord.
Gaddafi daughter seeks ICC probe into father’s killing
ALGIERS — A lawyer for Muammar Gaddafi’s daughter said on Wednesday he had written to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to ask if an investigation had been launched into the killing of her father and brother.
Death penalty won’t reduce crime: Zuma
Pretoria — There is no credible evidence to prove that re-introducing the death penalty in South Africa will reduce crime, President Jacob Zuma said yesterday.
DRC poll result not in doubt — Kabila
Kinshasa – Democratic Republic of Congo president Joseph Kabila has accused critics of failing to understand the country, adding that the results of the polls were not in doubt despite some “mistakes”.
At a news conference on Tuesday, Kabila said: “People should appreciate that, over a period of ten years we have, as promised, managed to organise elections.”
Putin rules out new election in marathon show
MOSCOW — Vladimir Putin dismissed calls to rerun a parliamentary election in a marathon phone call-in on Russian television yesterday and ignored most of the demands of protesters complaining of electoral fraud and demanding an end to his 12-year rule.
Chirac found guilty of corruption
Jacques Chirac, the former French president, has been handed a two-year suspended prison sentence after being convicted on two charges in a long-running corruption trial.
Chirac, who led France from 1995 to 2007, was found guilty of diverting public funds and abuse of trust over two cases in which prosecutors said he had paid members of his former party for municipal jobs that did not exist.
US forces mark end of Iraq mission
US defence chief Leon Panetta has officially ended the US’s military presence in Iraq by saying that “the dream of an independent and sovereign Iraq is now a reality” at a ceremony at the US military headquarters in Baghdad.
Syrian troops ordered to shoot to kill
More than 70 Syrian army commanders and officials have been named by former soldiers as having ordered attacks on unarmed protesters in that country, a US-based rights group says.
The report from Human Rights Watch names 74 commanders and military and intelligence officials as having allegedly “ordered, authorised, or condoned widespread killings, torture, and unlawful arrests” during the country’s nine-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad’s government.
Islamists set to dominate in Egypt vote
CAIRO — Egyptians voting yesterday said they felt empowered by the first free election after Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule, a poll likely to give Islamists the upper hand in a parliament that will help shape Egypt’s new constitution.