PRETORIA: South Africa’s “Dr Death” Wouter Basson, who headed the apartheid regime’s germ warfare programme, was found guilty yesterday of unprofessional conduct by the country’s health council.
The former South African defence force surgeon-general, 63, now risks being barred from practising medicine after the council ruled that he had flouted ethical rules.
Basson faced charges over supplying suicide cyanide capsules to operational officers, tranquillising substances for kidnappings, and for producing sedatives, ecstasy and tear gas.
“The breaches of medical ethics amount to unprofessional conduct,” said Jannie Hugo, chair of a Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) committee on the matter. Sentencing proceedings are due in February.
Georgia seeks more ceasefire monitors
GENEVA: Georgia yesterday urged the international community to bolster an observer mission along a ceasefire line fixed after Russian defeated its former satellite in a lightning war in 2008.
After a two-day round of peace talks in Geneva, Georgia’s chief negotiator David Zalkaliani said an expanded monitoring presence was needed to deal with a raft of ceasefire violations by Russia and pro-Moscow forces in breakaway South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
“The Georgian participants once again emphasised the need to revive discussions in relation to the creation of international security arrangements,” Zalkaliani told reporters. He said such a move would be the “best guarantee” of security for Georgia, given that Moscow has declined to join Tbilisi in renouncing force as an option in the long-running conflict.
Nigerian president loses majority
ABUJA: Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan lost his majority in parliament yesterday after 37 lawmakers bolted his party for a new opposition coalition, the latest political blow to hit the embattled leader.
In a letter presented to the speaker of the lower house, the lawmakers elected under Jonathan’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) declared that they had joined the All Progressives Congress, stripping the PDP of its majority in 360-seat chamber. They listed “divisions in the political party (PDP) that sponsored our election” as the reason for the move.
The PDP had controlled the lower house since the end of military rule in 1999, but was left with just 171 lawmakers after yesterday’s announcement. Jonathan has been haemorrhaging support in recent weeks, including the defection of five powerful state governors to the APC last month.
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