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We need monthly crime stats: ISS

National police statistics should be released once a month, and not when they are six months out of date, the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) said on Thursday.

“Police update crime statistics every 24-hours. We only get it after it’s been outdated,” said Gareth Newham, head of governance, crime and justice at the ISS.

“If you could get it once a month… communities could see what’s happening in their neighbourhoods and start acting without the help of police.”

He said this would take a “massive burden” away from the police.

“Right now, people have no clue what’s happening in their areas.”

Newham said the decision not to release the statistics once a month was a political decision.

He said Cabinet had changed the previous policy from once every quarter to yearly. – Sapa

Trekkers attacked by Papua New Guinean bandits tell of horror

Hikers on the Black Cat Track in Papua New Guinea

A group of Australian and New Zealand trekkers brutally attacked by bandits in Papua New Guinea told Thursday of their harrowing ordeal and horror as two porters were butchered.

The eight tourists were in their tents on the remote jungle-clad Black Cat Track in the lawless Pacific nation’s northern Morobe province when a mob of six armed men struck at dusk on Tuesday.

Two porters were hacked to death with machetes and four of the Australians were injured, including one who was speared through the leg.

“It started to rain and some of us were inside the tents when there was a whole lot of noise, shouting. I thought the boys had found a bush kangaroo, an animal or something like that,” one of the survivors, Nick Bennett, told Channel Nine after arriving in the capital Port Moresby.

“Next thing, I thought ‘what’s going on’, I put my head outside tent and smack — I thought I’d been shot actually,” he said of being hit with a rifle butt.

“Blood just erupted out of my head and I looked up and I saw this guy with a mask on standing over me, and then the whole thing unfolded.

“They were laying into the porter boys. I realised they were butchering the porters. It was just appalling and we’re very fortunate.”

Another survivor, Peter Stevens, told Australian Associated Press he and the rest of the group were forced to lie on the ground as the men ransacked their backpacks, stealing passports and other items.

“They then laid into us with bush knives, hitting us with the flats of the knives,” Stevens said.

“You can’t tell whether they’re going to hit you with the flat side. Some people were cut.”

Stevens said two of the attackers were clearly on drugs and “they did the most damage”.

The group managed to hike some four hours back to safety, reportedly carrying the porters’ bodies.

Papua Prime Minister Peter O’Neill vowed the tribesmen responsible will face the death penalty if caught and convicted.

“I make no apology whatsoever for the death penalty being the punishment available to be applied for such crimes,” he said in a statement.

While the attack was believed to be a robbery, some reports suggested it could also stem from growing resentment that the booming trekking industry is not giving back to local communities.

Crime in Papua New Guinea is rampant, including in Port Moresby where in June four Chinese nationals were hacked to death, with one reportedly beheaded and the others dismembered.

Brutality against women is particularly endemic, with high rates of domestic violence. In April, a US academic was gang-raped while she was trekking along a jungle trail with her husband and a guide.

The Black Cat Track runs between Wau and Salamaua in northern PNG through leech- and snake-infested jungle with precarious drops and potentially dangerous river crossings.

It was the scene of bitter fighting in 1943, pitting Australian and US troops against Japanese forces. – AFP

Three murder accused allege SA police torture

Three men accused of shooting dead an Mpumalanga mineworker three years ago were tortured into confessing to the crime, the Nelspruit Circuit of the High Court in Pretoria heard on Wednesday.

Isaac Sebokuboku Phala, 29, Calvin Tjatji, 24, and Tshepo Seloane, 24, pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, armed robbery with aggravating circumstances and possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition when they appeared in court, a Sapa correspondent reported.

They are accused of murdering Madingwana Max Matlou, 43, and robbing him of his Samsung cellphone in Mashishing on August 22, 2010. The cellphone was later sold to Cash Crusaders in Emalahleni.

During a trial-within-a-trial on Wednesday, Justice Mogotsi, for Phala, told the court his client would testify that Constable Ernest Vuma Mgwambi, Warrant Officer Johannes Thomas Motau and two captains forced him to make a confession.

“My client will testify that his head was covered with a plastic tube and pepper spray was used to make him suffocate. He said they forced him to produce the murder weapon,” Mogotsi said.

He said Phala was charged only once his wounds had healed.

King William Manzini, for Tjatji, told the court his client would also testify he was assaulted and forced to do a pointing out at the crime scene.

“My client said his constitutional rights were not read to him. On June 4 2011, he was assaulted and was only taken to a doctor for a check up three weeks after the beating.”

Madala Simpson Mulaudzi, for Seloane, said his client was fetched from Tubatse police station and was taken to the Leboeng police station on June 6, 2011.

“My client said he was taken to a bridge at the exit of Tubatse. He was then taken to a veld, where he was handcuffed with his hands in the back and on his legs.”

“After a plastic tube was put over his head, they used pepper spray to make him suffocate. He will testify that he was sjambokked severely on his back and sustained serious injuries.”

Seloane was taken to Leboeng police station where he was introduced to Tjatji, said Mulaudzi.

“He will testify he was told to go to a magistrate and make a confession…. He will also testify that he was told the injuries were inflicted by his parents when they beat him up.”

“He said he was told by Mgwambi that if he reported the assault, he would shoot him dead.

“He said when he went to the magistrate he reported he had been assaulted. That was when the magistrate cancelled the interview. He claimed he was only taken to a doctor on June 9.”

The defence lawyers said their clients would testify that Mgwambi drove them to the crime scene and asked them to return with other police officers to do the pointing out.

When Mgwambi took the stand, he testified that he was the investigating officer in the case and that no assault had taken place.

“No assault took place against the three suspects. The reason why we drove to the crime scene is that it is the only road from point A to point B. There is no alternative road.”

Motau, who also took the stand, denied that the three men were assaulted or forced to make confession.

“I was with the investigation officer, Constable Mgwambi, during the entire investigation. All the suspects co-operated with police and they voluntarily chose to make the statements.”

Judge Mmonoa Teffo postponed the trial to Thursday. – Sapa

KZN man gets 5 years for statutory rape

A 22-year-old man has been jailed for five-years for a statutory rape by the Empangeni Regional Court, KwaZulu-Natal police said on Thursday.

The man was sentenced on Wednesday for raping his 14-year-old girlfriend in Ngwelezane area, said Captain Thulani Zwane.

The incident happened in February when the teenager was sent to the garage and she was delayed by the man on her way back.

She came home late and her angry father ordered her to return where she came from, said Zwane.

“She went back to her boyfriend and they were involved in sexual activities.”

Her mother opened a rape case the following day and the man was arrested. – Sapa

Artificial eggs on sale in the USA

Two scientists at Hampton Creek, working on the artificial egg

A radical ‘artificial egg’ backed by Paypal billionaire Peter Thiel and Bill Gates goes on sale in US supermarkets for the first time today.

Made from plants, it can replace eggs in everything from cakes to mayonnaise – without a chicken ever coming close to the production process.

The team today started selling their ‘plant egg’, called Beyond Eggs, in Whole Foods in California – and say it could soon be available in supermarkets worldwide.

‘We want to take animals out of the equation,’ said Josh Tetrick, the firm’s founder. ‘The food industry is begging for innovation, especially where animals are involved – it is a broken industry.’

‘Even better than the real thing’

MailOnline was able to try two of Hampton Creek’s products – its mayonnaise, and cookies made using its baking product.

The results were surprising, if a little anticlimactic. Both tasted exactly as you would expect – and are indistinguishable from products made with real egg.

The chocolate chip cookies we tried were excellent – crumbly, moist and with a feel in the mouth identical to a normal cookie. Crucially, they also look identical to a normal cookie – despite containing no egg.

Hampton Creek’s ‘Beyond Egg’ mayonnaise was also extremely similar to ‘normal’ mayo – and after trying it out on a few friends, some even preferred to to normal mayonnaise.

Tetrick’s idea was to find a mix of easy-to-grow plants that, when mixed together in the right way, replicate the taste, nutritional values and cooking properties of an egg.

This, he believes will allow the firm to produce its substitute for mass market foods – and to allow developing worlds to grow their own versions with added nutrients.

‘Eggs are functionally incredible, they do everything from hold oil and water in mayo to making the muffin rise and holding scrambled eggs together,’ he said ‘I started to think what if we can find plants that can do this. We have about 12 plants pre-selected, including a pea already widely grown in Canada. There’s also a bean in South Asia that is incredible in scrambled eggs.’

The firm is already in talks with major food manufacturers around the world – including several in the UK, to replace eggs in supermarket products with their alternative.

So far, he says the team has perfected an egg substitute for mayonnaise, and one for cakes.

‘We can make really good mayonnaise, we’ve done taste tests against market leaders, and beaten them consistently. In the world of cookies, we’ve trialled our products with everyone from Bill Gates to Tony Blair, both of whom couldn’t taste the difference.

‘Bill Gates became an advisor to the company, and has been one of its most vocal supporters in the Silicon Valley world where Hampton Creek is based. – dailymail.co.uk

Have hackers made passwords obsolete?

New startups looking for ways to keep their users secure should know one thing, a top Google security executive said Tuesday: “Passwords are dead.”

Speaking on a TechCrunch Disrupt panel called “Spies Like Us,” Heather Adkins, Google’s manager of information security, told moderator Greg Ferenstein that in the future, the “game is over for” any startup that relies on passwords as its chief method to secure users and their data.

Adkins, speaking alongside Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers managing partner Ted Schlein and author James Bamford, said that looking ahead, “our relationship with passwords are done,” and that “passwords are done at Google.”

She talked briefly about Google’s use of two-step authentication and the fact that the search giant has been working to innovate in the area of non-standard password security. As a result, she said, any startup that still relies on standard passwords needs to ensure that it has an abuse team set up to deal “with customers getting compromised.”

Although Adkins didn’t offer any real specifics on how Google will innovate beyond today’s security, she did say the company is experimenting with hardware-based tokens as well as a Motorola-created system that authenticates users by having them touch a device to something embedded, or held, in their own clothing. “A hacker can’t steal that from you,” she said.

Later in the conversation, which also touched on the NSA scandal, cybersecurity, and the weaponization of offensive cyber technologies, Adkins pointed out that hackers intent on making money from their bad acts had consistently found ways to exploit Google users who had yet to turn on two-factor authentication. Essentially, she explained, hackers were able to get into such users’ accounts, turn on two-factor authentication themselves, and lock the users out before utilizing those accounts to send spam. “They are finding new ways to make money off it,” she said. “Ways we hadn’t anticipated.”

Finally, Adkins argued, technology companies need to step up and build products that protect users so “they don’t rely on not getting fooled.” Ultimately, she said, anyone starting a new technology company should be sure that one person is designated to focus on security and privacy, and that one of the first 25 employees should work full time on security and privacy. – cnet.com

Black models complain about ‘racism’ in fashion industry

Bethann Hardison’s Balance Diversity campaign is gaining steam–and some very famous advocates.

Supermodel icons Naomi Campbell and Iman, both of whom have persevered over the industry’s prejudice, are publicly throwing their support behind Hardison, who last week sent open letters to the fashion governing bodies of the major fashion cities. The two have joined Hardison’s new advocacy group Diversity Coalition, and yesterday, the three women went on Good Morning America to discuss why the lack of diversity on the runway is so troubling–and why designers should no longer dismiss it as artistic right.

“The statistics, it’s really shocking,” Campbell said. “Heartbreaking. Your body and beauty, it doesn’t matter what color you are. If you’ve got the right talent, you should be there having the opportunity to do the job.”

“There were more black models working [in the ’70s] than it is happening in 2013,” Iman added. “There is a time when silence is not acceptable at all. And if the conversation cannot be had publicly in our industry, then inherently there is something wrong with the industry.”

Campbell, for one, is calling BS on all this talk of a designer’s “creative vision.” “I think they hide behind aesthetics,” she said.

Yet the three wanted to clarify that, despite the language used in the open letters sent out last week, they aren’t calling designers themselves racist.

“You know, this is not the business of shaming,” Iman said. “And as we go back again to clarify it, nobody is calling any of these designers racist. The act itself is racism.”

That’s the whole point of Hardison’s campaign: To get designers and casting agents, who probably aren’t racist on a personal level, to examine how they could be contributing to sending such a negative message. “I think they’re ignorant and they’re arrogant, and I think it’s not even about racism,” Hardison says. “I think it’s a sense of laziness and they’ve told themselves a story.”

None of the designers named responded to Good Morning America about the campaign–though, to be fair, it’s the middle of fashion week so they’re probably pretty busy. Still, we hope that they’re listening. “Change does not happen easily,” says Iman–but starting a frank discussion about the issues is certainly the first step. – fashionista.com

Black riots in Protea, outside Randfontein

Violent service delivery protests erupted on Wednesday in the Protea area outside Randfontein, said police.

Warrant Officer Kay Makhubela described the scene as chaotic as hundreds of community members from the Waterworks informal settlement clashed with police.

“Police are firing rubber bullets at the protesters. We also have our nyalas and choppers on the scene but these protesters are attacking police,” said Makhubela.

He said the demonstrators were throwing stones and rocks at police and motorists making their way past.

“The N12 road from Potchefstroom and Randfontein and Impala Road has been closed. We advise motorists to use alternative routes,” said Makhubela.

The protests began at around 2am. No arrests had been made.

Makhubela said no injuries had been reported thus far.

Earlier, the metro police department said the protests were in Zuurbekom.

Makhubela rectified the earlier reports. – Sapa

Childsex trial continues in Durban

The trial against Dr Genchen Rugnath, his wife Ravina and three others accused of charges related to human trafficking continues in the Durban Regional Court on Tuesday.

The SABC reported on Monday that the State had been granted an in-camera testimony for one of the witnesses.

The 18-year-old girl testified behind closed doors.

The accused were arrested after police conducted a raid on a lodge owned by the Rugnath couple in Durban’s Point area early last year.

The other three accused are Sandile Patrick Zweni, Nonduzo Dlamini and Bhabha Dubazini.

All five have pleaded not guilty to 156 charges, including assault, rape, sexual exploitation of a child, and racketeering. – Sapa

British woman fears Aids after brutal S. African rape ordeal

by Jane Flanagan, London Daily Mail

A British woman was repeatedly raped at gunpoint during a savage 14-hour ordeal after she and her boyfriend were kidnapped at a South African beauty spot.

Now she faces a nightmare wait to see if she has been infected with HIV in a country where Aids is rife.

The couple were blindfolded and bundled into their car by four thugs and driven for 200 miles.

The only stops were when the gang visited illegal drinking dens and when the 29-year-old woman was raped.

As the attackers got more drunk, they invited other drinkers from shanty town shebeens to come and taunt their two white victims trussed up in the back of the vehicle.

The men grew increasingly violent as the night wore on, stabbing the 26-year-old South African boyfriend in the leg and beating him repeatedly.

The couple were told that they would be driven over the border to Mozambique and their bodies dumped.

They escaped only because their attackers lost control of the car and it overturned. The tourists scrambled out of the wreckage and fled.

A passing motorist, who stopped to help after seeing the crash, was shot dead and his passenger wounded as the attackers tried to steal their car.

The rape victim, from Gloucestershire, has told friends she feels she is under ‘a death sentence’ from Aids.

She has been prescribed anti-Aids drugs. But it will be months before doctors can say if she has been infected.

The Foreign Office said yesterday it was reviewing advice to visitors to South Africa, and especially Mpumalanga province where the rape happened and where a British woman was shot dead in a robbery last month.

The rape victim arrived in South Africa two weeks ago for a three-month visit.

She and her boyfriend had stopped at a picnic spot on Long Tom Pass in the Drakensberg Mountains when they were attacked on Saturday. It is one of the country’s busiest tourist routes – and the scene of a coach crash in 1999 which killed 26 British holidaymakers.

Piet Posthumus, a family friend of the victim, said: ‘This is the worst thing in the world for her. She is so traumatised by the possibility that her life is now under threat because of what has happened.’

He added: ‘A pistol was fired a couple of times as a warning and at least once it was fired through the floor of the car where they were lying.

‘Who knows how this would have ended if the car had not crashed.’

‘You have to understand that it is just not safe to get out of your car in South Africa any more.’

The ordeal ended when the driver went off the road near Barberton, 50 miles to the south.

The couple later spotted two men they believed were part of the gang as police drove them away from the scene.

The men, a South African and a Zimbabwean, are expected to appear in court today accused of rape, abduction and murder.

Nick Sheppard of the British High Commission in Pretoria said travel advice was being reviewed in view of the rape and the murder of Briton Diane Conway in Mpumalanga last month.

Mrs Conway, 60, was shot dead after she and her husband confronted an armed robber in their hotel room.

Mr Sheppard said ‘These are very serious incidents so we have to examine our options.

‘But 300,000 Britons visit South Africa each year and these two incidents are the worst over the past two years involving British tourists.’

With a favourable exchange rate, attractive climate, safari parks, beauty spots and beaches, South Africa has become a tourist magnet.

But it also the most violent society in the world, with the highest rates of murder and rape. Tourists are seen as soft targets by young men who have easy access to weapons.

There are almost 20,000 murders a year – 60 times more than in Britain.

Nearly 50,000 rapes were reported to police last year, but the true total is estimated at 30 times more.

The charity Childline says a girl born in South Africa is more likely to be raped in her lifetime than learn to read.

South Africa also has the highest number of people in the world with Aids or carrying the HIV virus. Some estimates put it at a quarter of the population. – MailOnline

British police arrest more than 160 conservatives at protest

British police arrested more than 160 people on Saturday as they sought to separate far-right protesters and anti-fascist demonstrators gathered in an immigrant area of east London.

Scotland Yard had imposed conditions on a protest by the far-right English Defence League (EDL) to keep its members away from the centre of the Muslim community in Tower Hamlets.

Strict conditions were also imposed on a planned counter-demonstration by groups including Unite Against Fascism, to ensure the two sides did not meet.

EDL leader Tommy Robinson was arrested for breaching police conditions, while about 150 counter-demonstrators were also arrested for diverting from their agreed route, police said.

The EDL campaigns against what it says is the spread of radical Islam in Britain, but it has been accused of Islamophobia.

A handful of people were also arrested on Saturday for offences including carrying a knife, carrying fireworks, criminal damage and violent disorder.

“There have been 14 arrests as part of the policing operation for the demonstrations taking place in Tower Hamlets today,” a police statement said.

It added: “In addition we have made approximately 150 arrests for breaching section 12 and section 14 of the Public Order Act 1986. All these approximately 150 people were protesting against the EDL presence.” – AFP

Policemen settle ‘kaffir’ claim

A settlement has been reached in a case involving the alleged use of a racially derogatory remark by one high-ranking policeman to another, The Star reported on Monday.

SAPS Roodepoort director Eben McLaren opened a claim for R1 million in damages against the minister of police and two police officers, claiming that the two officials falsely instituted crimen injuria charges against him. The case was set to be heard in the High Court in Pretoria last week.

Captain Victor Pambo, of Lonehill, claimed McLaren called him a ‘kaffir’ while other police members were getting into his vehicle at the intersection of Bosman and Pretorius Streets. McLaren allegedly thought Pambo was committing a traffic violation.

Pambo opened a criminal case of crimen injuria against McLaren, as well as an internal police grievance. The charges were later withdrawn and McLaren was acquitted in his disciplinary hearing.

The trial was set down for six days last week, but was averted when the parties reached a settlement.

According to the settlement, the minister of police would pay half of McLaren’s legal fees for the process of instituting the damages claim.

This was not to be interpreted as an admission of liability and was to be considered as full and final settlement on the matter. – Sapa

Syrian rebels, Al-Qaeda take control of historic Christian town

Syrian rebels, including jihadists linked to Al-Qaeda, have taken control of the historic Christian town of Maalula, north of Damascus, a watchdog and a resident said on Sunday.

Maalula is home to around 5,000 residents and is of strategic importance for the rebels, who are trying to tighten their grip around the capital Damascus, adding a northern post to existing bases in the south and west of the city.

Capturing the town, around 55 kilometres north of the capital, could also help rebels threaten the nearby highway between Damascus and Homs, a supply route used by the regime.

The battle for the town left at least 17 rebels dead and more than 100 wounded overnight, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that dozens of regime forces and pro-militia members were also killed or wounded in the fighting.

“Overnight, Syrian regime troops moved into the village, but rebel forces sent reinforcements and were able to take control of the entire town,” Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

He said the Al-Nusra Front, which has pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, was among the forces that had taken control of the town.

A Maalula resident, reached by phone, confirmed that regime forces had withdrawn from the area and rebel forces were now in control.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the resident said the situation on the ground was quiet.

“The rebels are inside Maalula, all of Maalula. The government troops have pulled out of Maalula,” the resident said.

Abdel Rahman said “fierce fighting broke out between regime forces and rebel fighters overnight, and the soldiers withdrew to the outskirts of the town.”

Troops were still stationed around the town, raising the possibility of renewed fighting.

Picturesque Maalula is nestled under a large cliff and is considered a symbol of the Christian presence in Syria.

Many of its inhabitants speak Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus Christ that only small, scattered communities around the world still use.

It is full of troglodyte caves dating back to the first centuries of Christianity, and also houses the Mar Takla Greek Orthodox monastery.

The clashes first erupted on Wednesday, when Al-Nusra Front fighters and other Islamist rebels attacked a regime checkpoint at one entrance to the town.

The advance raised fears of attacks against churches or Christians in the town but on Friday, the opposition Syrian National Coalition said rebels had withdrawn from the area.

On Saturday, the Observatory said rebel forces were fighting pro-regime militias in the west of the town, and were also engaged in clashes with Syrian troops on the outskirts of Maalula. – AFP

Shares in farms a smoke-screen for expropriation

The issue of proposed shares for farmworkers is a thinly disguised attempt by government to expropriate farms and could allow the uncertainty amongst South African farmers about their future to reach crisis levels, Mr. Pieter Groenewald, the Freedom Front Plus’ parliamentary spokesperson on Rural Development and Land Reform, said.

Mr. Groenewald said the proposals contained in a policy document of the department of Rural Development and Land Reform about the voluntary issuing of shares to farmworkers, boils down to nothing less than brutal expropriation of land, similar to that which took place in Zimbabwe.

According to Mr. Groenewald the document is making waves in agricultural circles and the proposals have been met with great concern.

One of the proposals in the document is that a person with ten year service is entitled to 10% shares for 50 years. The document does not at all make mention of what would happen if workers eventually hold the majority of the shares in a farm.

The document also mentions that it intends to reverse a wide range of uncertainties regarding property rights which were brought about by land expropriation, humiliation and exploitation of people.

Mr. Groenewald said the proposals are frightening and could cause enormous harm to South Africa’s agriculture as it could lead to large scale disinvestment.

“What will happen if a farmer has four workers who worked on his farm for 25 years each? Will that mean that they could take over ownership without compensation and the farmer has to seek another livelihood?

“South Africans and the world should open their eyes now about the ANC government’s plans with land ownership in South Africa.

“It is clear that the land reform program is a miserable failure and other plans are now being made to expropriate land from farmers without compensating them,” Groenewald said.