Rejigged terrorism Bill deals with Cosatu concerns, and other brief reports
* The amended Terrorism Bill moved a step closer to enactment yesterday when it was passed by the National Council of Provinces. The Bill, scuppered in the last parliament but recently revived by the council, now addresses some of the concerns raised by Cosatu earlier in the year. The Mercury
* CE of the Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office, Felx Malunga, has resigned to take a private sector job, the organisation said yesterday. Business Day * Judgment has been reserved in the Pietermaritzburg High Court in the application by the former chairman of the New Republic Bank, Dato Samsudin Bin Abu Hassan, and his wife, Melleney, for a reconsideration of an order provisionally sequestrating their joint estate. The couples joint estate was provisionally sequestrated on an urgent basis in December 2003 without notice being served on the Samsudins as the liquidator of NRB Holdings, Pierre de Villiers Berrange, expressed fears that Dato Samsundin would divert his assets in order to frustrate his creditors if he became aware of the application. The Mercury * A case of culpable homicide has been opened against the brother of a 75-year-old man mauled to death by four dogs in Umgababa on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast. News24 * The US is too narrowly focused on Osama bin Laden and his al-Quaeda network, French anti-terrorism judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere said yesterday. He said security officials were in fact no longer faced with well-defined Islam-inspired terrorist groups, but a loose network without centralised structures, complicating the fight against terrorism. Business Day *The former chief financial officer for the Legal Aid Board, John Modiko (37), has appeared briefly in the Johannesburg Specialised Commercial Crimes Court where he is facing charges of fleecing the board of more than R500 000. The case was postponed to January 21 for further investigations. Modiko is on R10 000 bail. The Star *A 36-year-old Limpopo teacher, Tangulani Thavhanyedza, has been indicted for the alleged hanging of his three sons at Mbilwi-Makanga village in August and will appear in the Thohoyandou High Court on November 25. Pretoria News