DRC arrests 14 Chinese for wood smuggling
LUBUMBASHI — Fourteen Chinese people suspected of illegally exporting red wood from the Democratic Republic of Congo were arrested on Thursday, local officials said.
“We have arrested Chinese people . . . who were cutting wood in our region,” Celestin Pande, acting governor of the Haut-Katanga region, told AFP.
Pande said 17 000 tonnes of red wood had been illegally exported to China through Zambia over four months.
“We have arrested 14 Chinese nationals with (tourist) visas, who were involved in cutting and illegally exporting red wood,” an immigration official in Haut-Katanga added, speaking on condition of anonymity. SEOUL — North Korea yesterday accused the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of plotting with South Korea to assassinate leader Kim Jong-Un, amid soaring tensions in the flashpoint region.
The CIA and Seoul’s Intelligence Services had “hatched a vicious plot” involving unspecified “biochemical substances” to kill the hermit state’s young leader during public ceremonial events in Pyongyang, the Ministry of State Security said.
For the CIA “assassination by use of biochemical substances including radioactive substance and nano poisonous substance is the best method that does not require access to the target, their lethal results will appear after six or twelve months”, the Ministry said in a statement carried by state media.
The accusation came as Pyongyang issues increasingly belligerent rhetoric in a tense standoff with the administration of US President Donald Trump over its rogue weapons programme.
The war of words between the West and the reclusive regime has spiked in recent weeks, and Pyongyang has JOHANNESBURG — Elvis Ramosebudi hatched a plot to assassinate President Jacob Zuma, his Cabinet ministers and members of the Gupta family, the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court heard yesterday.
State Advocate Johan Badenhorst read out an affidavit by a Hawks officer who investigated Ramosebudi.
In the letter, Captain Magezi Sewele stated that he had 25 years’ experience.
Badenhorst told the court that evidence against Ramosebudi included evidence of several state witnesses, documentary and audio and video recordings.
In the statement, the Hawks claimed that Ramosebudi promised to kill Zuma and his whole ‘state capture’ machinery.
According to the Hawks, Ramosebudi said State Security Minister David Mahlobo would be the
Since the beginning of the year, a crisis linked to exotic wood exports has poisoned relations between DRC and neighbouring Zambia.
Zambia has seized several hundred vehicles transporting padauk, a dense wood used in construction and woodworking, from DRC as part of investigations into exports to China.
Kinshasa has denounced the seizure, but on Thursday a delegation from the capital decided to ban the logging and exportation of red wood from HautKatanga.
Haut-Katanga’s forests have been devastated by illegal logging, with wood mostly used for charcoal, the main source of energy for an electricity-deprived population. — AFP
North Korea accuses CIA of plot to assassinate Kim Jong-Un
threatened to carry out a sixth nuclear test that would further inflame tensions.
The CIA and Seoul’s Intelligence Services (IS) have “ideologically corrupted and bribed a DPRK citizen surnamed Kim” to carry out the attack on Jong-Un, the statement said.
“We will ferret out and mercilessly destroy to the last one the terrorists of the US CIA and the puppet IS of South Korea,” the statement said, adding that the plot was tantamount to “the declaration of a war”.
“The heinous crime, which was recently uncovered and smashed in the DPRK, is a kind of terrorism against not only the DPRK, but the justice and conscience of humankind and an act of mangling the future of humankind.”
The statement did not give any information on how the plot was foiled or what happened to the alleged spy.
North Korea maintains extensive surveillance operations over its own population, and open dissent against the regime is considered extremely difficult. — AFP
Hawks claim ‘coup plotter’ wanted to take out Zuma, Guptas
first target of the so-called ‘Anti State Capture Death Squad’.
Other names on the “state capture” letter included Ajay Gupta, Rajesh Gupta, Atul Gupta, Varun Gupta, SAA board chairperson Dudu Myeni, Cogta Minister Des van Rooyen, National Prosecuting Authority head Shaun Abrahams, Zuma’s son Duduzani, Sars boss Tom Moyane and former Eskom boss Brian Molefe.
He told them he had sniper rifles and poisoned food to carry out assassinations. He also said he had a sniper team of six. He stated they have been trained.
The targets would be murdered to prevent the ANC losing the 2019 election and result in a civil war.
They would be murdered in their homes to make it seem like house robberies.
The Hawks said he was arrested after a “trap” was set up and video recordings of that trap were made. — AP