EMAIL FORENSICS At The Center of Bennett Trial
A High Court judge in Harare will next week rule on whether
emails at the center of treason charges against opposition MDC Treasurer and minister designate, Roy Bennett, are admissible during the high profile trial. The Emails will serve as a test case on the use of intercepted communications under Zimbabwean law.
STAB PROOF VESTS: Fearmongering or realism?
The controversial stab proof vests designed for tourists and going to South Africa for World Cup 2010, scheduled for June, have hit the market with one vest selling for $69,000.
Future of investigative journalism at stake
Nonprofit groups that specialize in investigative reporting have had some big scoops, cracking the front page of such newspapers as The Washington Post and forcing officials out of their jobs. Now the question is whether these organizations can stay afloat on donations.
FUTILITY OF TORTURE: Court dismisses confession in arms trial
The High Court in Harare has dismissed confessions obtained under duress by state security agents from arms dealer Michael Peter Hitschmann, paving way for his impeachment as key witness in the high profile trial of the Deputy Agriculture Minister-designate Roy Bennett.
HOSTILE: Court rules witness unfit in arms trial
The MDC says the case against Bennett is politically motivated and aimed at keeping him out of the transitional government the party formed with ZANU PF party led by President Mugabe. Bennett is a Deputy Agriculture Minister appointee of Prime Minister Tsvangirai, but he is yet to be sworn-in by President Mugabe since February last year.
Its a mean, blogging, tweeting, tabloid world!
The celebrated deep throat is evolving, from that trustworthy, well placed official, to a bunch of seemingly credible, anonymous twitters or bloggers, some of whom are still well placed officials. It seems the lines are blurring… after all. Its a mean, blogging, tweeting and re-tweeting, tabloid world!
DETAINED: Botswana scouts held in Zimbabwe
This is not the first time government employees from Botswana are arrested in Zimbabwe as in 2006, a former Botswana Television reporter and cameraman Koketso Seofela were fined arrested and Z$5 000 (about P128) for breaking Zimbabwean Immigration laws by crossing into that country without permission.
DEAD AID: We are all Haitians: Ayittey
Much of the aid to Africa was used to finance grandiose projects and to underwrite misguided, repressive policies. The rest was embezzled by elite gangsters. Mauritania, a poor arid West African country, receives aid from wealthy western countries. About 70 percent of it goes back as interest payments and the rest is embezzled. “The chief opposition party, Union des Forces Democratiques, claims that since 1985, the government of President Maaouya Ould Sid’ Ahmed Taya has siphoned away $1.8 billion of aid money for itself and its supporters.
STATE OF THE UNION: All Set For AU Summit
Former Mosambican President Joaquim Chissano has done a particularly good job of mediating in conflicts in the Great Lakes, but Africa seems to suffer from a lack of retired statesman of his calibre, leaving the few that can do the job overstretched and often with the mammoth challenge of facing their former counterparts.
PAY UP: African Development Bank Raps Zim Over Debt
The African Development Bank (ADB) has said Zimbabwe must clear its arrears with international lending institutions before it can benefit from available funds. ADB deputy president Aloysius Ordu told journalists in Harare Monday that Zimbabwe’s debt of about US$6 billion was “too huge” and should be cleared before the troubled southern African country could access new money.